The Blue Rose: The Story of Aria
by Rose's.wings
Summary: Was Aria. Only one force was able to make the three worlds ally. Now its back and it isn't happy about its captivity. It took an impossible amount of energy to stop it before and no one in the detectives' world, including themselves, has that. So who does
1. Chapter 1: Shiro

Okay now, before you all run off because you realize this has pokemon in it, let me explain. One night while my younger sibling was watching the show (Cartoon Network had a Master Marathon, Yuck!) I challanged myself to see if I could write a story with pokemon in it without it being completely stupid. In case you're wondering when I made this challange, it was just after that girl Mai or May or however her name is spelled asked "what is time travel". Fortunately for you, and my sanity, she won't be in this story, although Ash and Pikachu might. After all, Pikachu is adorable and has some common sense. As for Ash, well, it seems that Pikachu can't leave him by himself. (I think it's because he doesn't have enough money for a babysitter. Hahaha) Anyway, on with the story!

Disclaimer: If you've heard of them before then I don't own them. The only people I made up are Aria and her Mom Sarah.

* * *

Chapter One: Shiro

Aria Cullen was something of a pokemon trainer. Mostly she kept the smaller, cutesy types, like Skitties and Pichus, however, yesterday evening, she found a more 'serious' pokemon.

"You think he'll be okay Mom?" Aria asked her mother as she quietly closed the door to her daughter's room behind her.

Sarah Cullen sighed again. "Yes dear, I'm sure your new friend will be fine. But you should probably let him rest so that he can recuperate faster." She told her daughter as she walked into the other room to finish washing the dishes.

After her mother left, Aria stood there wondering what to do. Usually after dinner she would go to her room to relax before she went to sleep. However, tonight she had a guest in her room, so she would have to stay out until she was ready to go to bed. It was almost like when relatives visited and her room automatically became the guest room.

"_Well,"_ Aria thought. _"I can be quiet when I'm relaxing, except for maybe the music, or the singing, or the occasional squeak when my book gets exciting. Okay so maybe I should do something else, like take a walk."_ Aria quickly went to get her shoes.

The Cullen's house sat on the outskirts of a forest not to far away from the city of Botany. Through the forest, it was only a fifteen minute walk at most to the city. There were also numerous paths that zigzagged through the trees, leading to an assortment of caves, springs, and dead ends. Some of the trails also led in a wound about way to the ocean that crashed behind Aria's house. Over the three years that Aria had lived near Botany, she had explored most of the trails; at least she thought it was most of them. Somehow, there always seemed to be more.

Of course, one of the biggest advantages to having a forest in your front yard and an ocean in your back yard was that there were usually pokemon living in both areas.

As Aria walked in that fading daylight to the tree line, she listened to the roar of the sea behind her and the night noises that were beginning to emerge from the forest. She loved this spot, right in the middle of both worlds. Here, she could listen to the music that they both offered.

She paused briefly to listen, and then continued on her way between the trees in search of her Sweetheart. A few feet into the forest, Aria heard a rustling sound up ahead and to her right. She stopped to see if whatever was making the sound would come out into the open. Just as she was about to continue on her walk, a small, slightly furry, creature stepped out in front of her.

"Why hello there Sweetheart. I was wondering when you were going to come home." She reached out her hand and her white Skitty leaned into her palm for a pet. Aria picked her up and started back towards the house. Aria's Skitty, or as she was more often called, Sweetheart, was very curious and would often escape the house to explore the forest. When she was younger, she had sometimes walked to the ocean, but she soon gave that up when she found out that water was wet.

"Now your going to be nice to our new guest, aren't you Sweetheart?" Aria cooed to her pet as they entered the house. Sweetheart gave a short almost 'meow' in response.

"Yes, I know you will be. Now you're going to have to stay out of my room for awhile, okay?" Aria placed a little kiss on Sweetheart's head, who started to purr in response.

"Okay, there you go." Aria said as she put Sweetheart down and went to find something else to do now that the sun had gone down. Sweetheart quickly scurried away to claim her usual spot on Aria's windowsill, forgetting that Aria had just told her that their room was off limits.

Aria had just decided to sit and watch TV when Sweetheart started to cry loudly. Aria groaned as she realized why Sweetheart was upset. She dragged herself up off the couch where she had just sat down and headed toward her bedroom door.

"Don't let her in your room Aria." She heard her mother call from the other room.

"Okay." Aria called back. "No, no Sweetheart." She cooed as she picked her up again. "I told you, you can't go in there. Not right now at least. Why don't you come watch TV with me, just for awhile?" Aria and Sweetheart both lay on the couch and, somewhere during the commercial break, fell fast asleep.

* * *

"Hiei, Kuwabara, let's get out of here, now!" Yusuke yelled to his friends as he tried to drag the unconscious Kurama with him to the exit. The parking garage that they were in was starting to fall apart after those blasts that the demon they were chasing had thrown at them. 

Fortunately, they were on the ground floor and the exit was not to far away. They all made it out before the concrete building came toppling down.

"That was too close." Yusuke said to himself as he watched the stone chunks crash together to the ground. "Hey," He turned to Kuwabara. "Help me would ya'?" He nodded towards Kurama who was still out cold.

"Right." Kuwabara said as he slung the kitsune's other arm across his shoulders and then waited for Botan, who had run up to them shortly after they had escaped, to open a portal to the Spirit World.

* * *

A few hours later, Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Hiei were in Koenma's office, explaining what had happened. 

Koenma was silent after they finished. "Are you sure that the blast the demon released is what caused Youko to disappear and knocked Kurama unconscious?"

Yusuke nodded. "Yeah, I'm sure of it. As soon as that black wave touched him, he fell down in his human form."

"What if the wave just drained him so he switched from being Youko to Kurama?" Kuwabara asked.

Hiei glared over at the orange haired human. "Because even when Kurama is in his human form, I can sense his demon energy. Now it's like he's just a human with high spiritual powers."

"You got something against humans with high spirit energy shrimp?!" Kuwabara yelled at Hiei.

"Both of you knock it off." Yusuke told them as Botan entered the room.

"How is he Botan?" Yusuke asked, trying not to show his concern.

Botan sighed. "He'll be okay, but he's very weak. I don't know what that demon did to him, but he'll out of it for the next few days." She told them in a tired voice.

Koenma looked at the three boys in front of him. "Well," He said. "I suppose that that's a few days that you can rest before you go out to look for Youko and this demon. I'll see you in about three days?" He looked over his pacifier at them to see Yusuke and Kuwabara nod. Hiei, of course, did not answer.

"Very well then, I'll see you all later." The small prince said from his chair as he absentmindedly straightened a stack of papers that had been sitting in front of him all afternoon. He hardly noticed when the three remaining re-recruited spirit detectives left his office, even though the door closed loudly behind them.

Koenma sighed. Yusuke Urameshi, demon terror that he was, had been re-hired by Koenma's father, King Enma, after the unknown demon had sent him the letter. King Enma had neglected to show his son what the letter said and simply ordered him to get Yusuke and the others back. Koenma knew that his father thought that they were the only ones who could save the spirit, human, and possibly even the demon worlds, (that would mean though that the demon was out to destroy it's own kind too and, while Koenma didn't have a hard time believing that, he found that most demons preferred to at least keep Makai in tact so they could control it themselves. From what his dad had told him, whoever was doing this planned to wipe out the three worlds along with their occupants.) but after tonight's display of the demon's power, Koenma was worried and unsure. Kurama was not one to be taken lightly, but the stranger had blown him away after one battle. If he could do that to Kurama, what could he do to the others? Koenma thought hopelessly as he returned to his paperwork. The world may be ending soon, but if King Enma found out he had skipped out on his work, Koenma wouldn't need to worry about anything except his behind.

* * *

Aria woke up the next morning with a stiff neck and Sweetheart staring at her from the floor. 

"How did you get down there?" She asked groggily.

"_I jumped."_

Aria stared down at her Skitty confused, and then shook her head; realizing she was still half asleep and had probably only imagined someone answering her question.

"Good morning dear," Called Aria's mother from the kitchen where she was flipping pancakes.

Aria's nose dragged her into the kitchen. "Good morning Mom." She said as she sat down. "Have you seen our guest yet?" She asked as she snitched some pancake batter from the bowl while her mom's back was turned.

"No not yet." She said distractedly, concentrating more on her cooking then her answer. Aria's mother wasn't very good at multitasking, whenever she tried, something usually ended up broken or burnt.

"Cool, I'll go see how he's doing." Aria said as she walked out of the kitchen towards her room. Just outside her door she paused and put her ear to the door. She didn't hear anything, so she quietly opened the door to peak through. Her usually bright room was shadowy and still. She glanced over at Sweetheart's bed which sat in the corner close to her own and saw that the pokemon wasn't there. She peered through the shadows in her room and saw that he had stolen her bed instead.

"Well it's nice to know that you're awake at least." She said as she came in and turned on the lights. The Nine Tails looked up at her with his amber eyes.

"Wow, aren't you a pretty one." Aria said as she approached the bed somewhat cautiously. He may be tired and calm, but that doesn't mean he's tame. Arai thought to herself.

The Nine Tails continued to stare at her as she came closer. When she was close enough to touch him, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a few pieces of pokemon food and held them out for him to sniff.

After investigating the stuff that she held out to him, the silver Nine Tails turned up his nose and sneezed.

"What? You don't want it?" Aria looked at him confusedly. Her mom may not be great at multitasking, but she was undoubtedly the best pokemon nurse and maker of pokemon food in or around Botany. All the pokemon that Arai had ever met had eaten her mother's special food, so she was shocked when she found this one didn't.

"O-kay then," Aria said. "What do you want to eat then?" She asked more to herself then to the Nine Tails sitting next to her. While she was sitting there thinking, the Nine Tails suddenly started sniffing the air vigorously.

"Hey!" Aria called as the silver creature stood up and jumped for the door. Aria quickly followed him out of her room and back to the kitchen where her mom had already placed a stack of pancakes on the table.

"Hey stop that!" Aria yelled as he jumped up on the table and began to dig into Aria's breakfast. Mrs. Cullen began to laugh as she put the dirty pan in the sink to wash later.

"Leave him alone Aria. I guess being washed up on the beach as a beat up mess made him hungry." She laughed a little as she came up to him and looked at him. The Nine Tails looked up from his smorgasbord to see what the fair haired woman wanted.

"Well, it looks like you're better, and after only one night of sleep out of water." She grinned at him as she reached out to stroke his back, and then jerked her hand back as he growled at her.

"I think he must be a wild pokemon Mom, but I don't understand how he got in the ocean."

"Well it's very simple dear," She told her daughter with a straight face. "He probably swam or jumped off a boat or something similar."

"Ha-ha, very funny Mom." Aria said sarcastically. "What I meant was that if he was a wild pokemon, he probably wouldn't be on a ship and if he lived on an island and suddenly found himself in the middle of the ocean, wouldn't he just swim back to his own home? Plus, the nearest island is like, 500 miles away. He wouldn't have been able to swim that, especially if he was hurt when he fell into the water.

Her mother sighed. "Someone has thought about this a little too much." She smiled at Aria.

The Nine Tails sneezed, attracting both women's attention. "I suppose if you're going to stay here we should call you something besides Nine Tails." Aria said to herself.

Mrs. Cullen looked at her daughter. "Okay, but keep in mind that he'll probably go back to the wild after he's well again."

"Don't worry Mom. I know that." Aria said in a slight whine. The Nine Tails sneezed again. "I think you might have a cold white one." Aria said then snapped her fingers. "That's it, I'll call you Shiro." Arai smiled at Shiro who was looking at her with what some people would call a frustrated and slightly humiliated look on his pointed face.

"Well, it's true. You look like a Shiro." Aria smiled wider and held out her hand for Shiro to smell. He took the opportunity and then ignored her. "I'm beginning to wonder if you aren't actually a Skitty in disguise." She said as she cautiously touched Shiro and began to pet him. Shiro glared up at her and she stopped.

"Okay, okay I get the point." She said exasperated, and then she giggled. "But I can't help it, you're too cute." Then Aria kissed his nose so fast that he didn't have time to get away from it. Once he realized what she'd done, he started to roll around on the table like a kid trying to get rid of cooties. Both Aria and her mom laughed, which only upset Shiro more and soon he left the room all together.

While both women continued to laugh in the kitchen, Shiro sulked back to Aria's room. After he had settled back into the covers of her bed, he started to mutter to himself.

"Girls." He humpfed, then closed his eyes and went back to sleep.

* * *

And there you go! The first chapter of . Even though that had pokemon in it, it wasn't so bad, was it? You should tell me if it really reeks or if it's not that bad and you would like to hear more. I already have the second chapter written, so I can post it if people like it. But I can't know if you like it if you don't REVIEW!!! So please REVIEW and I'll post the second chapter. 

Thanks for reading,   
Rose

P.S.-REVIEW!!!!!


	2. Chapter 2: Xryna

Hey guys, I hope you liked Chapter One. If you did, then here's chapter two. Hopefully you people will contact me and tell me what you think like in an e-mail, or a letter, or a review (hint hint wink wink nudge nudge ;3). So, if you guys like it, TELL ME!!!! Thank you, that is all. Bye bye now. (Well don't actually leave without reading chapter two.)

Disclaimer: If you've seen them before then they probably aren't mine. Aria, her Mom, Arashi, and Xryna are mine. So no touchy.

* * *

Chapter 2: Xryna

Two days after the demon had attacked him, Kurama woke up in one of the guest rooms in Spirit World. He struggled into a sitting position as he heard the door open.

"Oh Kurama, you're awake. I was beginning to worry about you." Botan said as she closed the door behind her.

"How long have I been asleep?" He asked quietly.

"You've been out of it for two and a half days. Yusuke and Kuwabara have been trying to find out about the demon that attacked you and Koenma and I have been going through the files. Unfortunately we haven't found anything yet." She finished in a disappointed voice. She shook her head after a moment, realizing she was acting very un-Botan like. "Oh here I am going on about something that I'm sure we'll fix soon and you're not even all better yet. How are you feeling by the way?"

Kurama smiled at Botan's attempt at being her usual chipper self. "I'm fine Botan, thank you for asking. Has anything else happened that I should know about?" He asked as he got up and tested his feet to see if they would hold him up.

"No, not really." Botan said. "Although Yusuke did say that your mother was worried about where you were. He told her that you were helping Master Genkai with something when your mother called and asked him." Botan explained.

Kurama nodded. Genkai didn't keep a phone in her house because they so often disrupted her, so his mother had no way of checking Yusuke's story.

"Botan, would you mind if I looked through the files to see if I could find anything about the demon that attacked us." Kurama asked as stood up and slipped on his shoes.

Botan nodded happily. "Yes, of course." She said relieved to know that the smartest person she knew was about to do the research that everyone else had failed at so far. "The file room is this way." She pointed down the hall to the left where a light was glowing farther down the hall.

"Thank you Botan." Kurama said then went to search for information on his unknown attacker.

* * *

A few hours later, Kurama was standing in Koenma's office waiting for the small prince to show up. After several minutes of waiting, both Koenma and Botan stepped through the back door that was behind Koenma's large chair. 

"So Kurama, I suppose you've already found something in two hours that Botan and I missed over two days of staring at those stupid files." Koenma commented in an annoyed tone as he hopped into his chair.

"I believe so," Kurama placed a small pile of papers in front of his employer.

Koenma picked them up and leafed through them. "Yes, I remember reading this." He said thoughtfully as he looked at the last page. "And yet, I don't remember this one." He looked up at Kurama.

"That is what I remember from when I was Youko. You didn't have any of this written where I could find it." Kurama said not looking Koenma full in the eye. Koenma glared at the paper, more upset that Spirit World didn't have the information that he needed.

"What does it say Lord Koenma?" Botan asked from the other side of his desk as he started at the paper.

"It's basically information about Xryna." Kurama spoke the ancient being's name with a dark inflection.

Koenma dropped his binky on the table. He looked up at the red haired spirit detective in shock. "You don't think he's involved in this?" He asked in a soft voice.

Kurama didn't answer. He didn't have time.

"Now wait a minute," Botan interrupted. "Who is this Xryna and why is it so bad if he's involved in this mess anyway?"

Both men were quiet as Botan looked at each of them. "Well?!" She demanded, hating the fact that she didn't know what they were talking about.

"Xryna was, is, a very powerful and ancient being." Kurama started. "But he is also an evil one. Millions of years ago, demons and those from Reiki joined together and sealed him away. While no one actually knows what Xryna did when he was still in charge, the fact that the two groups joined together against him most likely means that it was worse then any other demon there is now." Kurama told her.

"I would like to know if he just has a demon, or maybe even a human, helping him or if he has been released and is doing this himself." Koenma muttered.

"Most likely he has a helper." Kurama said. "If he was released then he wouldn't need to wait to wipe us out."

"Wipe us out?" Botan squeaked.

Kurama smiled wryly. "Yes, he isn't very happy about the fact that he was sealed away by both races."

"Yes..." Koenma trailed off, thinking to himself. "We should still concentrate on finding the demon that attacked you," He motioned to Kurama. "But now we should also watch out and try to find out what he's planning."

"I will tell Yusuke and others when I go back to the human world." Kurama offered and Koenma agreed.

"I can take you. If we leave now, we can catch them on their way home from school." Botan told him.

Koenma nodded again. "I'll call Botan if anything else comes to my attention."

"Okay. Come on Kurama." Botan threw open the doors with Kurama following her out of the room.

* * *

Aria smiled to herself as she and Shiro sat on the beach watching the sun go down. Aria absentmindedly reached out and stroked Shiro's head. After a little over a year of living with them, Shiro had warmed up to Aria and her mother. 

"The sky sure is pretty, isn't it Shiro?" She said more to herself then to Shiro. Shiro answered with a kon anyway. While Shiro looked like any other Nine Tails, he said 'kon' instead of his name and he still refused to eat any kind of pokemon food.

Aria sighed happily and lay back in the sand. Shiro waited for a moment then trotted to as close to the ocean as he could without stepping in the water. He looked back at Aria and saw that she had closed her eyes. For a moment, the silver creature did nothing. Then, he began to glow. Quickly, the white fire that was surrounding him shot up into the sky and disappeared into the scarce clouds that were floating above him.

Once he was done and the white light had flown from view, Shiro walked back to Aria and lay down by her head. While this was not the first time that Shiro had done this, although he did hope that it would be the last.

* * *

"Hey, wait a minute guys." Yusuke said as he pulled his communication mirror out of his back pocket and flipped it open. 

"Yeah, what do you want Koenma?" He asked in a bored voice.

"I've found Youko." He said straight to the point. Kurama quickly joined Yusuke so he could hear Koenma better.

"Where?" He asked.

"He's on a different world. That blast must have sent him to a different world. Fortunately, it is also under my control and the person who I've put in charge of monitoring it informed me a few minutes ago that someone has been releasing a large amount of demonic energy periodically throughout the last year."

"Last year? He's only been gone two days." Yusuke pointed out.

Koenma sighed. "Time works differently there. It would take to long to explain now. Anyway, it'll take too much energy to send all four of you there at once and we'll need most of you here to deal with _him_." Kurama and Botan had already explained about Xryna and how it was important not to mention his name anywhere except the Spirit World because there was power even in his name and Xryna would notice it, no matter how small.

"So, I will send Kurama and Botan to look for him. However it will have to be one at a time." The Spirit prince told them.

"Very well, we'll be right there." Botan said as she pushed Yusuke out of her way so she could see her boss.

"Sheesh Botan!" Yusuke complained as he got up off the floor. "You didn't have to push me."

Botan ignored him, summoned her oar, and waited for Kurama to get on.

"We'll be back once we've found Youko, don't do anything exciting while we're gone." Botan called cheerily behind her. Kurama saw through her false happiness, but didn't say anything as they flew off to Spirit World.

* * *

A few days after she and Shiro had watched the sunset from the sand, Aria was in Botany completing errands for her mom. She was walking down the street with Shiro trotting next to her and Sweetheart sprawled across her shoulders. 

"Now let's see," Aria said to her friends as she looked at the list her mom had given to her. "First we should go to the Pokemon store and get Mom's stuff for her pokemon food. Then we can go to book store to get the book she ordered and maybe find some that I like." She winked at her friends. "Then we'll go to the grocery store and then we'll go home." She smiled widely. "Ya know, the music store is right next to the book store, maybe they'll have that CD I've been looking for."

Shiro sighed to himself. _Why did I want to go with her?_ He thought to himself as the walked into the first store.

Fortunately for him, Aria wanted to be in the Pokemon store as much as he did, even though she didn't know it, and they quickly got her mom's supplies for the pokemon food.

The book store took a little longer. It turned out that Aria loved books about as much as Shiro's, or rather Youko's, other half did. Except she was more fond of standing in book stores looking through all the different books instead of just reading them. Youko was about ready to take a nap when Aria finally paid for her three books and left with her two pokemon.

It was late afternoon by then. Youko realized with a shock that they had been in the bookstore for nearly an hour and forty minutes. He sighed and followed Aria down the busy sidewalk.

Suddenly he snapped his head up as he caught a glimpse of red hair on the other side of the road, heading in the opposite direction.

He would recognize that red hair anywhere. After all, he had seen it in the mirror for almost eighteen years now. He started to run across the street and cars screeched to a stop in order not to hit him.

"Shiro! What are you doing? Get back here!!" Aria called as she darted after him.

Unfortunately, she wasn't as lucky as Shiro was and a bicycle messenger hit her causing her to fall.

"Owww..." She said with tears in her eyes as she rubbed her head where it had smacked into the ground.

"Are you all right?" Aria heard a soft voice ask. She looked up to see the most brilliant green eyes she had ever seen.

"Uh, yeah I think so." She told him as he helped her up off the pavement and onto the sidewalk. "Thanks." She said and looked at the person who helped her for the first time. Besides his green eyes, he had long red hair and nice face. He probably isn't that much older then me. She thought.

"Your welcome." He said and smiled at her. A kon made him look down.

"Youko?" He bent down to look more closely at the pokemon. "Youko what are you doing here?" He asked Shiro, who hopped up onto the young man's shoulders and made himself comfortable.

"Oh, is he yours?" Aria finally managed to unfreeze her vocal chords.

The young man looked up at her. "Mine?" He questioned.

Aria was a little confused. "Isn't Shiro, or I guess his real name's Youko isn't it," The stranger nodded. "Isn't he your pokemon?"

The red headed young man looked down at Youko who, without Aria's notice, nodded a fraction of an inch.

The stranger smiled at Aria again, making her feel kind of funny. "Yes, he is. Have you been taking care of him?"

"Yes. I'm Aria by the way." She held out her hand with her introduction.

He took her hand and shook it. "I'm-"

"Kurama! Hey Kurama!" They both looked up as a blue haired woman ran up to them.

The man, Kurama, sighed. "Yes, Botan, what is it?"

The woman stopped and stood next to Kurama. "Oh nothing, I was just wondering where you were."

Aria felt her heart drop a little. This must be his girlfriend. She thought downtrodden.

"Hiya," Said the woman. "I'm Botan. I'm Kurama's-"

"Sister." Kurama spoke up suddenly. "This is my younger sister." He looked at Botan.

"O-oh yes. That's me, Botan Minamino, Kurama's younger sister." She smiled widely.

"I'm Aria, Aria Cullen." Aria shook Botan's hand.

"Oh it's so nice to meet you Aria. I see you've found Youko Kurama, we should go home before Mom gets worried then." Botan started to pull on her brother's arm, grinning all the time.

"Well," Kurama started to say, but Youko 'kon'ed, distracting him just enough to let Botan pull him away.

"Bye." He called over his shoulder and waved to Aria.

"Bye." Aria said weakly. Great, she thought. There goes one of the cutest boys I've ever seen and all I can say is hi and good bye. She sighed, attracting Sweetheart's drowsy attention.

"Mrow?" She asked.

Aria reached up and scratched Sweetheart behind the ears, making her purr.

"What do ya say we go home, huh?" Sweetheart agreed.

By the time they got home, it had started to drizzle rain and the sky had gotten dark.

"Wow, I'm glad it decided to hold off until we got inside." Aria said as she let Sweetheart out of her jacket where she had crawled when the rain started.

"Mom, we're home!" She yelled looking in the kitchen for her mother. "That's strange, she's not there." She commented and kept looking through the house for her mother. Eventually she found a note taped to the fridge that she had overlooked at first.

"Dear Aria," Aria read the note out loud to no one in particular. "Mrs. Davis's Growlith got sick again and I've gone to look at her. Dinner is in the fridge; just stick it in the microwave. I should be back before dark. Love Mom. Okay then." She finished reading and went to look for the aforementioned dinner.

She was just finishing when she heard a knock on the door.

"I'm coming." She yelled across the house as she put her dishes down. She looked through the curtains near the door to see who it was and gasped. She quickly opened the door so that the siblings from before could get out of the rain.

"Kurama, Botan, what a surprise. Please come in." She held the door open long enough to admit her guests but shut it quickly after they were in to keep out the rain.

"Oh it's you again." Botan said excitedly as she wrung out her hair. "Aria, right, you live here?" She looked around curiously.

"Uhh, yeah. Youko, oh it's good to see you again." She held out her arms and Youko quickly jumped up in her arms. Kurama was shocked to see the young lady kiss Youko's head. He was even more shocked to see that Youko didn't bite her for it.

"What is it Kurama? You looked shocked." Aria smiled as she started to pet Youko, who let out a contented rumble.

"Well, it's just that Youko doesn't really let people...cuddle him like that, at least not without biting them afterwards." Kurama confessed.

Aria laughed. "Well, I suppose he got used to me after a year of living here." She smiled sheepishly. Kurama gave Youko a look. Youko gave Kurama a sly smile that only he could see.

"Yes, I'm sure." Kurama said trying to hide his anger at his other half.

It was silent for a moment. "So, um, do you two have any place to stay?" Aria asked slowly, grabbing for something to talk about.

"Well, no." Botan admitted. "But we we're planning on just..., passing through, but then the rain came down."

Aria laughed. "Yes, it did. We were nearly caught in it ourselves." She gestured to Sweetheart.

Botan suddenly got stars in her eyes. "Ahhhh, aren't you the cutest little kitty I've ever seen!" She cooed and started to scratch and stroke Sweetheart.

Kurama sighed at his sister's antics. Suddenly the sky cracked open and thunder rolled across the sky making Aria jump and stifle a scream. She smacked into Kurama, who was a little startled by her scream.

After the noise faded away, Aria was afraid to look at Kurama. How embarrassing. She thought privately to herself as she backed away from Kurama and muttered some excuse about getting them something to drink.

Kurama to the opportunity to talk to Youko about what had happened.

"What have you been doing here, Youko?" He asked silently, keeping an eye on the kitchen door in case Aria came back.

The thousand year old fox spirit smiled. "Keeping an eye on things."

Kurama glared at him. "What things?" He asked darkly.

Youko laughed. "Relax Shuichi. I've been good. Now," His face became more serious. "What has been happening at home?"

Before he could explain Aria came back into the room. "Later." Kurama muttered and then stood back up and accepted the drink from his hostess.

"Thank you." He said as Aria handed him a glass of water.

An awkward silence fell onto the two people and the only noise came from Botan who was still playing with Sweetheart in the other room.

"_Heh heh, you like her."_ Youko spoke directly to Kurama's mind.

"_I have no idea what you're talking about."_ Kurama took a sip of water and tried to ignore the fox at his feet.

Youko stretched and yawned. _"I'm sure you don't."_ He smirked up at Kurama and walked to Aria's room, where he had slept throughout the last year.

"_By the way,"_ He added as an afterthought. _"It looks like she has a crush on you as well."_ Then he left, snickering to himself.

Kurama wasn't quite sure if he should believe Youko, then he looked at Aria and saw the look he had seen almost a thousand times on the girls at school.

The only thing was that it looked kind of cute on her.

Kurama shook his head. "Hey are you okay?" Aria asked and Kurama nodded. "So anyway, as I was saying, if you and your sister don't have anywhere else except the rain to stay, you could stay here. We have a spare room." She looked up at him and waited for his answer.

"Uh, sure." Kurama replied. "If it's no problem, that is."

"Oh why Aria that is so sweet and we thank you very much for your trouble." Botan suddenly popped up next to Kurama, giving both him and Aria a heart attack.

"You're welcome Botan." Aria said after she jumped a foot in the air.

Sweetheart suddenly sprang onto Aria's shoulders and started hissing at the window.

Aria was surprised by her pet's behavior. "What is it Sweetheart?" She asked as she tried to calm her pet down. Eventually the white Skitty stopped hissing but she kept growling for a long time after whatever had been outside the window left.

After Aria had gone to bed, Botan and Kurama discussed what had happened in the guest room that Botan would be sleeping in.

"What do you think was outside the window?" Botan asked quietly.

"I think it's more who then what." Kurama responded.

"You think that it was the demon that attacked you?" Botan asked in a low whisper.

Kurama thought about it for a moment. "Either him or someone else who is working for _him_."

"What I would like to know is, if it is the same demon," Botan said as she scratched her head. "How did he know to follow us hear? Or how did he get in contact with someone hear so they would know to watch us?"

Kurama thought for a moment. "I don't know." He admitted. "But we should watch out for whoever it is anyway."

Botan nodded. "Okay, but for now I think we should hit the hay. It's already 10:30." She looked at her watch.

"Good night then Botan." Kurama said and went back to the living room where he would sleep on the couch.

* * *

Outside of the Cullen household, a dark shadow stood watching from the tree line. He was disturbed by the fact that the ancient spirit fox's human half and the reiki girl had shown up. His Master would not be pleased by this. 

_Well, this might not ruin everything._ The shadow thought to him self. He would just need to make a few adjustments to the part of the plan that Master Xryna had entrusted him with. Yes, if he could just keep those two brats here along with that stupid girl and Youko Kurama's demon half, then they would be destroyed all at once.

Surely the Master would be pleased if he, his loyal servant Arashi, wiped out the smartest member of the Reiki Tantei with this whole idiotic world, and if the Master was happy, then Arashi would live longer to enjoy his reward.

The living shadow chuckled to him self. He couldn't wait until he had the whole of Makai under his control.

* * *

Dun dun dun! The plot thinkens. Meaning that you actually see a plot, Tune in next time for Chapter Three: I have not thought up a title yet. Isn't that a great name? Don't worry I'm just kidding. Well, see you later! 

Rose

PS- REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW ALREADY!!! Please please pretty please?!


	3. Chapter 3: Sarah

Hey yall. Sorry it took awhile to get this up, but believe it or not I have good excuses this time. First I had my week long mission trip in Missouri then the week after I helped out with VBS, then I went on vacation to St. Thomas. Virgin Islands baby! It was so beautiful. You wouldn't believe how clear the water is. I mean, the only ocean I've really seen is the Gulf of Mexico and the water there is full of silt from the Mississippi. So anyway, here's chapter three. Hey Zel!  
Zel: What?  
Rose: Tell 'em  
Zel: cheater. Rose doesn't own anything except Aria, her mom, Arashi, and Xryna.  
Rose: And you! (hugs her little green winged fox like thing)  
Zel: Thanks, but I am not a thing!  
(Conversation degenerates from there)

* * *

**Chapter Three: Sarah**

The next morning, Sarah Cullen walked tiredly back to her home, hoping that Aria was up already and had made breakfast herself. However, she highly doubted anything like that had happened, she still hoped it had.

Sarah quietly opened the door in order not to wake her most likely sleeping daughter.

"Aria." She called as she closed the door. "Aria, are you awake?" She carelessly dropped her stuff next to the door and rubbed her temples. She felt a strong headache coming on and she only wanted to get some sleep. She hadn't been able to sleep the Davis's due to her sick Growlithe and the fact that the thunderstorm had kept waking her up every time it boomed and crashed.

"Aria." She called again. "You need to wake up dear." She said as she walked through the living room to Aria's room. Instead, she saw her daughter had fallen asleep on the couch watching TV.

"Aria," She said as she shook Aria's shoulder in order to wake her up. "Time to get up darling."

Aria rolled over after her mother's constant shaking and Mrs. Cullen screamed when she saw that it wasn't her daughter on the couch. It was some strange young man she had never seen before.

Instantly, the stranger woke up and yelped as he fell of the couch. Mrs. Cullen screamed again as a blue haired girl ran into the room

"What is it Kurama?" She cried. She stopped when she saw her mom waking Kurama with her purse, which she had grabbed again when she first started screaming.

She was still smacking him when Aria ran in.

"Mom, what are doing?!" She quickly took her mother's purse away and grabbed her arms so she couldn't hit anyone.

"Mom, it's okay. I know them. They stayed here so they could get out of the rain. They didn't have anywhere else to go. It's okay." Aria told her mother quickly, trying her best to calm her down. Aria was more afraid that her mother would have her first heart attack then she was of Kurama getting a slight concussion.

At her daughter's words, Mrs. Cullen calmed down. She looked again at the two strangers Aria had invited to spend the night. She took a deep calming breath and shakily asked Aria to come talk with her in the kitchen.

Once they were alone, Aria's mother quietly exploded.

"Are you out of your mind?!" She whispered fiercely and shook her daughter by the shoulders.

"Wha-?" Aria managed.

"You don't know them! How could you invite these strangers to spend the night? They might be robbers, or murderers, or something else!"

"Moom," Aria whined. "They're Shiro's owners. Actually, his name is Youko and he's Kurama's pokemon, so relax." Aria gently removed her mom's hands but still held on to them.

Sarah looked at her daughter's smiling face, so trusting and, at the moment, so naïve, and sighed. "Aria," She said in a frustrated voice. "Just because they're Shiro's-"

"Youko's." Aria interrupted.

Her mother sighed again. "Youko's trainers, doesn't mean that they themselves are trustworthy."

"Mom..." Aria started to whine, but her mother quickly cut her off.

"Aria, I just want you to be careful. Okay?" Sarah told her with a worried look on her face.

"Okay Mom, but they were here all night and I'm okay. So please don't worry." Aria smiled again and left before her mom could argue. After she left, Sarah rubbed her temples again.

"I need a nap." She told herself and walked back into the living room where Aria was apologizing to her new friends.

"I'm sorry," Mrs. Cullen apologized to her daughter's guests. "But I'm afraid I don't feel comfortable with the two of you being here. Maybe after I get to know you better, but right now I would just like to take a nap so if you could please..." She motioned towards the door meaningfully.

"Oh yes that's quite understandable." The blue haired girl said cheerfully as she dragged the red haired boy's arm. "Kurama and I will just be on our way now. It was nice meeting you Mrs. Cullen. Bye Aria, hopefully we'll see you soon!"

"B-bye Aria." Kurama said quickly as Botan dragged him out the door.

"Bye guys. Sorry about this." She called from the door as they quickly walked to the forest.

After they disappeared into the trees, Aria turned on her mother.

"How could you do that?!" Aria cried. "Those were my friends and you just shoved them out!" She stormed to her room and slammed the door before her mom could answer. Sarah sighed heavily and rubbed her temples again.

"I'm going to take a nap before I deal with any of this." She muttered to herself then went to her room to sleep for a good long time.

* * *

"Well, that went well." Botan commented as she and Kurama walked out to the middle of the forest so they could return to Reiki. 

Kurama shrugged his shoulders. "My mother would have probably done the same thing. She likes to know my friends before they stay at the house for any long period of time." Kurama smiled.

Botan smiled and put on her kitty face. "I think I know why you like it here." She teased, pointing a kitty paw at him.

Kurama looked straight ahead and ignored his blue haired friend. "I don't know what you mean Botan."

Botan giggled. "Of course not." Botan said.

They continued in silence for a while.

"You know," Botan started. "Aria was very nice to let us stay in her house."

"Yes she was." Kurama said in almost monotone.

They continued walking for a while longer, not saying anything.

Botan finally exploded. "Oh come on Kurama!" She cried. "Admit that you liked her already." Botan stopped walking.

Kurama, however, didn't stop. "I don't even know her Botan. We just met yesterday."

Botan let out a frustrated sound. "Kurama," She whined. "I know you have a crush on her." Botan ran to catch up with her friend.

Kurama sighed. "Botan," He said firmly.

"Yes." She drew out the word.

"It's none of your business." He kept walking as Botan stopped and dropped her bottom jaw. Once Kurama was far enough ahead not to hear her, Botan threw a mini tantrum, mad that her friend wouldn't tell her anything.

They reached the clearing they had landed in before none too soon for Kurama. He wanted nothing more then for Botan to drop the subject she insisted on pursuing.

"Kurama," Botan said as she caught up.

"Let's go Botan." He said before Botan could keep talking.

She sighed at his insistence on leaving. "Alright, alright, we're going." She said as she summoned her oar. She rather liked this place. The things they called pokemon were just adorable! Like Aria's Skitty, Sweetheart. She was just the sweetest little thing Botan had ever seen. Unfortunately, it was time to leave. Botan sighed as they both climbed on her oar and soared up into the sky. Once they were high enough, Botan prepared to transport them to Reiki. She gathered her spirit energy and focused on Reiki. But they didn't disappear like they should have. She opened her eyes surprised to see that they were still floating above Aria's forest.

"Are we leaving soon Botan?" Kurama asked from behind her.

"Yeah sure!" She said with false cheerfulness, hoping that it would work this time.

But it didn't.

"What is it now Botan?" Kurama asked dejectedly.

"I can't get through." Botan said surprised.

"What?"

"I can't get through to Reiki. We're stuck here." Botan's face like it was permanently stuck in a fake looking smile.

Kurama gently put his hand on Botan's shoulder. "Botan," He said carefully. "Let's land and see if we can figure this out."

Botan felt herself nod. She felt the wind rush past her face as she quickly brought her oar to the ground.

Once they landed, she felt more herself.

"What the heck is going on here?!" She yelled at the top of her lungs, scaring all the feathered pokemon from the treetops.

Kurama suddenly knew how anime characters felt when the got one of those sweat drops on their heads.

"Relax Botan. I'm sure that there is a logical explanation as to why we can't get back." Kurama didn't feel very hopeful about that, but he didn't want Botan to freak out more then she already was.

Botan suddenly snapped her fingers in inspiration. "I bet that demon from last night had something to do with this."

Kurama smiled strangely. "Yes, he probably had something to do with it."

Botan got a strange smile too. "How about we go to Aria's and ask her for help." Kurama gave his friend a look that said, 'Shut. Up. Now.'

Botan started to meow.

Kurama sighed and started to walk away. Botan quickly caught up.

"Where are you going?" She asked still in kitty mode.

"No where." Kurama said as he walked on with his eyes closed.

"Are you going to Aria's house?"

"Who else do we know here?" He asked coolly. Botan followed him out of the forest, thankfully, without anymore questions, although she did give him some sneaky looks.

Kurama was about to knock on the door when it burst open.

"You're back!" Aria cried joyfully. "I guess I would too if I had forgotten my pokemon."

"Huh?" Kurama asked, forgetting his usual cultured self for a moment.

Aria motioned towards the floor. "Youko, you left him here." She looked a little surprised that he had forgotten him.

Kurama glared at Youko. "You were supposed to follow us." He said to his 'nine tails', who simply smiled up at his 'trainer'.

_Did you want me to mention that a barrier had sprung up overnight preventing us from returning to Reiki?_ He asked in Kurama's mind a little too innocently.

Kurama glared at his other half. _Yes, that would have been helpful._ He replied coldly.

He returned to the physical conversation a little too late. Botan had already explained to Aria that they had missed their flight back home and that they didn't have the money to get another ticket.

"So, I was wondering," Botan started to ask bashfully. "If you knew were we can maybe stay for a few days so we could wait for our parents to buy us new plane tickets?"

Aria thought about it for a moment. "Well, no actually, but my mom might." She said thoughtfully.

"Oh I'm sure your mother doesn't want to see us right now." Botan waved her hand, hoping to avoid another explosion.

"Please don't worry about earlier." Aria said apologetically. "She was really tired because she didn't sleep very well last night."

"We understand why she said what she did," Kurama waved away her apology. "She was just worried about you. We understand. Our mother would do the same." Aria looked relieved to know that her mother wasn't the only one to act like that and she smiled, relieved.

For a moment, Botan watched as Kurama and Aria stared at each other. Her kitty face appeared again as she looked back between the two.

Finally she had had enough of staring, so she cleared her throat to get their attention. Botan laughed a little as both her friends jumped and turned red.

"Uh, w-would you like to come in?" Aria stuttered slightly and waved them in and closed the door. "Here let me get you something." She tried to hide her red face as she disappeared into the kitchen to play hostess.

Botan looked sideways at Kurama. She opened her mouth to comment when...

"Don't say a word." Kurama cut her off before she said anything. Botan quickly clamped her mouth shut as Aria came back into the room with some kind of juice.

"If Mom is feeling better later, maybe she'll let you stay here until your parents send you your new plane tickets." Aria said with false causality.

Kurama smiled warmly at her. "We don't want to be any trouble."

Aria gave him a look like he had just told a joke. "Believe me. Compared to my relatives, you guys aren't trouble at all." Kurama and Botan laughed.

Aria sat down in the reclining chair that was next to the sofa where Kurama and Botan were sitting. Once she was comfortable, Youko jumped up into her lap and sat down while Sweetheart leisurely walked up to Botan.

"Mrow." She said.

Botan went gaga over the white Skitty. She immediately started cooing and ahhing as she pet and scratched her sweetly.

"Aria," Kurama said. "Are you sure your mother won't mind us being here?"

Aria looked a little guilty. "Well," She twisted in her seat. "I don't know, but I'm sure-"

"We don't want to get you into trouble." Kurama said softly.

Aria sighed explosively. "She treats me like I'm five!" She put her head in her hands. "And she _knows_ that I can take care of myself! I mean, I _am_ a black belt plus I have all my pokemon with me..."

Kurama's curiosity finally got the better of him. "You have pokemon?"

Aria looked up at him with a slightly confused expression.

"Well yeah, everybody has pokemon. Don't you have any others besides Youko?" She asked, silently wondering what kind of trainer her friend was.

"No actually." Aria felt her jaw drop at his confession.

Seeing her face, Kurama quickly explained. Meaning he made up a lie as quick as he could.

"Where we live," He started. "There aren't any pokemon. Youko was given to me by a relative." He said quickly as a look of confusion crossed Aria's face as she gestured to the silver fox. "That's part of the reason we're here actually, to see our Aunt and Uncle. They're going on a trip however, which is why we were leaving." Kurama added to Botan's lie about visiting.

Aria sat up. "That's cool, all my living relatives are scattered throughout the world it seems, but I don't remember any of them telling me about a place without pokemon." She said, trying to fit the lie into reality. It wasn't fitting to well.

She brushed it off. "Never mind," She said partly to Kurama but mostly to herself, then her face brightened up with an idea. "Hey, would you like to see mine?"

Kurama, not being a mind reader, was lost. "Huh?"

"My pokemon, besides Sweetheart there's Pip, Eve, Vixie, Cici, and Chu. I have quite a few others, but since trainers are only allowed to have six pokemon in a battle, I don't really keep more then that."

"Where do you keep your others?" Kurama asked as Aria started to get up.

"They're with Professor Mabel at her lab. I'll be right back okay?" She left the room and came back a few minutes later holding a small dark blue backpack.

"Here we are." She said as she pulled out a small ball the size of a marble and pressed a button that rested on the line between the red and white halves. Kurama watched, fascinated, as the ball grew from the size of a marble to the size of a baseball. Aria pointed the button away from herself and her guest and then pressed it again. A stream of red energy poured out and quickly took the shape of a small penguin, except, Kurama noticed, that it wasn't really a penguin. Besides being a fine shade of pastel blue and a darker, more watery blue, its head was larger then its body and it had two small whitish circles on its torso just below its head.

"Pip!" It squeaked and shook itself after it solidified into its shape.

Aria reached out her arms for the little misshapen penguin. "Hey Pip, did you have a good nap?" She cooed as Pip jumped into her hug and squeaked again. Youko ducked, trying to avoid the Piplup's feet as he kicked them in the air. Kurama heard him emit a soft humph as he closed his eyes and tried to go back to sleep.

Aria set Pip back down on the ground and picked up another red and white ball. She repeated the same process as before, but this time a small brown, four legged creature appeared. It had large brown eyes and long rabbit like ears coming off the side of its head. It also had a large tan ruff around its neck and its brown tail had a tip the same tan color as the ruff. This one was Eve and she gave it a hug just like the first.

Next was Vixie, who was a lovely little creature that resembled a fox. She had reddish brown fur with a darker colored sock on her left front paw. Her six tails were a brighter color with more red in them then brown. She took one look at Kurama and walked away to go play with Sweetheart and, most likely, Botan.

Cici turned out to look more humanoid then his previous fellow pokemon, even with his pinkish tinted skin. He distinctly reminded Kurama of a small clown, which was probably what he was. As soon as he was free of his ball, he began imitating Botan, who didn't realize it until a few minutes later.

Last was Chu, a yellow and black mouse like creature with two pink-red spots on his cheeks. His playful attitude quickly showed itself as he hugged Kurama's leg, shocking him slightly. Before someone could punish him, he quickly ran off to play with someone else.

"Ha ha" Aria laughed as some of Kurama's hair started to stick up with static. "Sorry, he likes to do stuff like that to people."

"Oh, it's fine." Kurama said then poked her arm, shocking her. "I can see why he likes it." He started laughing as Aria started to rub away the sting.

"No fair." She pouted. "I wasn't ready."

Kurama raised an eyebrow and smiled. "Yeah and when will you be ready?"

Aria gave him a mean smile. "Oh Chu!" She called, causing the little creature to poke his head out of the kitchen. As he started bounding across the room on all four paws, Aria said, "You better start running now Kurama."

Kurama took her advice.

It wasn't that the shocks were painful, they tickled more then anything, but for some strange reason, this was fun.

It remained fun too, that is until Mrs. Cullen woke up.

She was just putting her short hair into a small ponytail as she walked into her living room to see Aria shock Botan, who had gotten involved when Kurama accidentally shocked her instead of Aria.

"What in the world is going on?" She demanded in an astonished tone. The three teenagers instantly stopped and stared at her, not quite sure what to do.

"Uhhhh..." Aria stammered. "You see Mom, Botan and Kurama missed their flight and their aunt and uncle have already left for vacation and they needed a place to stay so-"

"You invited them to stay here didn't you?" Her mother asked in a bland voice, not exactly surprised this had happened.

"Nooooo," Aria drew out the word, trying to figure out how to put her new friends' problem without getting them all in trouble. "They asked if I knew of anywhere they could stay for awhile and I don't so I recommended they talk to you because you know everyone in Botany and everybody likes you and-"

"Alright, alright," Her mother cut into her flattery. "I get it, but what were you three doing just now?" She looked pointedly at Aria.

"Nuuuhthing." She answered, looking around her.

"Uh-huh." Mrs. Cullen said. "Well," She sighed. "I suppose I can help you two find somewhere to stay while you wait for aunt and uncle to come back."

"Hopefully our parents will be able to buy us tickets before that." Botan put in.

Mrs. Cullen nodded. "Okay, how long do you think that will be?"

Botan and Kurama looked at each other. "A few days." Botan said shrugging.

_Or a few months._ Kurama didn't say that part out loud. That wasn't something either Aria or her mother needed to know. Hopefully he and Botan would be out of here before then anyway.

"Okay," Mrs. Cullen said with a sigh. "I suppose for right now the two of you can stay here..."

"Are you sure that that's okay Mrs. Cullen?" Botan asked hesitantly. "I'm sure we can find somewhere else if you really don't feel comfortable with us here."

Mrs. Cullen sighed again. "No its fine. I'm sorry if I offended you earlier. Aria was right, you were here all night and she's fine and nothing's missing," She paused and smiled at them. "At least not as far as I can tell."

Kurama got that anime sweat drop feeling again and he was pretty sure Botan had it too judging by her awkward giggle. Aria was ecstatic and flung her arms around her mom in a tight hug yelling, "Thank you Mom!" Kurama was starting to wonder if Aria had many friends. She barely knew either him or Botan and already she was inviting them to stay at her house for who knew how long. Granted she only thought it would take a few days until their parents bought them new plane tickets, but Kurama didn't think that the barrier would be down by then.

The barrier worried him. The demon from the night before had most likely created it. However the barrier itself didn't feel like it had been made with demon energy. It was puzzling, but Kurama was sure he would figure it out.

Eventually.

* * *

Well I hope you're starting to get into the story. I know it's still kinda slow, but please bear with me. It'll pick up. Hey! I got a livejournal account and I've been putting up a Maximum Ride story there. I'll put up some Yu Yu Hakusho ones or something else soon I hope, but if you like Maximum Ride you should go read After Armeggodon. My account name is zellerose and my journal's name is An Angel's Gettaway. Go check it out soon! Please? 

Announcment: REVIEW!!!!! Oh please please pretty please review. I don't care if you just tell me that you like it or don't, hoever it would be nice if you told me something that you think I should fix. But please Review!

P.S.- REVIEW!!!

Zel: Now you're just being pushy.  
Rose: Hehe Sorry, but no one's reviewed yet at all. It's sad. :(


	4. Chapter 4: Botan

Hey, I'm back. And I brought Chapter Four with me!

Zel: Thank goodness, otherwise there wouldn't be much point in you showing up like this.

Rose: Hush you.

* * *

Chapter Four: Botan

Three days later however, the barrier was still in place and neither Botan nor Kurama had any clue as to how to get through it back to Reiki. Mrs. Cullen still hadn't thought of anywhere else that they would be able to stay for cheap, so she was kindly letting them stay with Aria and herself until Botan and Kurama's parents called. Little did she know that they weren't going to if only for the simple fact that they didn't exist.

Of course Botan and Kurama thought it better not to tell her that. So when their parents didn't call, Mrs. Cullen began to worry.

"Oh I'm sure that they'll call soon Mrs. Cullen. Please don't worry so much." Botan said for the umpteenth time, trying to wave away their host's worry.

"All right, but maybe you should try to call them instead." She suggested as she went into the other room to finish something.

Botan gave Kurama a worried look. "We need to find some way back to Reiki soon, before she tries to call our 'parents' herself." She whispered.

Kurama nodded. "Either that or think of a reason that they can't buy tickets."

Botan's kitty face popped on her face, something that had been happening a lot lately. "Yes I'm sure you would rather do that and stay here then find a way back to Reiki. Meow."

Kurama closed his eyes and did his best to ignore her, especially since Aria had just entered the room.

"Good morning you guys." She yawned as she sat next to Botan at the table.

"Good morning Aria, did you sleep well with my loud mouth sister in the same room?" Kurama asked over his cup of orange juice, prompting the loud mouth to smack him over the head, making him and Aria laugh.

Botan had noticed that Kurama was more at ease in this place then she had ever seen him and she couldn't help but feel that that was a good thing. Maybe it was because Youko was currently in his spirit form and out of Kurama's body. Although, she also had a distinct feeling that Aria had something to do with it. Or at least she hoped so. The blue haired ferry girl felt that they would be good for each other, at the very least as friends, although...

Botan decided to try her hand at matchmaking.

Kurama looked over at his 'sister' as she started giggling almost manically as her kitty face appeared, again.

"Hey Botan," He said in an almost bored tone, causing her to look up at him.

"Yeeeeees." She said suspiciously.

"Your whiskers are showing." She quickly tried to hide her sneaky attitude.

Fortunately, Aria had gone to get her breakfast from the counter, so she missed her friends little conversation and Botan's strange behavior.

"So," She said lightly as she sat back down with her plate. "Are you guys planning on doing anything today?"

Kurama and Botan looked at each other. Well, we have to find out how to get past the barrier, get home and figure out a way to get past the demon that's been watching the house, and it would be nice if we stopped the destruction of all living things while were at it to.

"No we're not planning anything." Botan said a little too cheerfully.

"Why, do you have something planned?" Kurama asked.

Aria smiled. "Sort of, today's the first day of the Pokemon Convention. Usually I don't go because more then half of it is people trying to sell you worthless crud, but I thought you two would like to go because the other half is pokemon battles and contests and things like that, and since there aren't any pokemon where you live I thought you would like to see them in action."

Botan looked over at Kurama. She knew he was curious about the pokemon creatures and she herself wanted to see all the different kinds besides the ones that Aria had already shown her in the forest and ocean.

"Okay, that sounds fun." Botan said as Kurama nodded.

Aria smiled widely. "Cool," She said. "I'll just grab my pokemon so they can have some fun too and then we'll go."

* * *

After an hours walk, the trio stood outside of Botany's huge convention center waiting in the long line to buy tickets. 

Aria sighed angrily. "Arh, this is taking forever!" She nearly screamed in frustration. "It didn't even take this long for us to walk here." She kicked at a pebble on the walk way, sending it flying towards a small table off to the side.

Kurama sighed; the wait and the girls' complaints were starting to grate on his nerves too. "I'm sure the line will start to move soon Aria." Youko, who was standing next to him, looked up at him.

"_You really think so?"_ He asked sarcastically.

Kurama glared down at his other half. _"Be quiet Youko."_ He said fiercely.

"Oh now that's just not fair." Botan exclaimed.

"What?" Aria asked as she tried to see how far back in the line they were.

"Those people over there don't have to wait in line at all." She pointed over to the table Aria had kicked the pebble towards.

Aria looked. "Oh, that's because they're trainers who're going to compete in today's competition." Suddenly her eyebrows shot up. "Now why didn't I think of that?" She murmured to herself then she quickly motioned for her friends to follow her to the table.

The lady sitting there looked up as she approached. "May I help you?" She asked politely.

"Yes," Aria smiled. "I'd like to sign up for the pokemon battle." The woman handed her the papers and she quickly filled them out.

"'Kay, here's your pass. They'll announce over the PA system when you'll need to go the arena. Are these two with you?" She asked as she handed Aria her trainers pass and information about where she would have to go.

"Yes ma'am." Aria said cheerfully, relieved that they wouldn't have to wait in that awful line any longer.

"Okay then," The woman whispered more to herself then to anyone else as she handed Botan and Kurama special passes that were similar to Aria's. They would allow them to visit all areas of the convention as well as let them sit next to the ring during Aria's fight.

With a final thank you, Aria led the way through the doorway into the convention.

Looking around the large, well lit room Botan began to see why Aria had said that half of the place was full of worthless junk. It reminded her of a really big tourist trap. Come to think of it, it probably was.

But then Botan saw the cutest little stuffed Skitty doll and she found she didn't care. Maybe it was a good thing Kurama was in charge of what little money Koenma had given them. She thought to herself as she picked up the toy and hugged it. It was very soft, although not as soft as the real deal, but still, it was cute. Once this whole end of the world mess was over, Botan hope she would be able to come back here and at least visit Aria and her pokemon. She liked them.

"Botan, are you coming or what?" Aria called back to her and Botan saw that she and Kurama had walked on ahead without her. She quickly dropped the doll and ran to catch up with them. Watching her friend out of the corner of her eye, Botan noticed that Aria seemed much more relaxed here for some reason. She had glimpsed Aria's mask falling a few other times, but had never bothered to mention it. If Aria didn't feel comfortable with them to let it down 100, that was her business. And besides, who could blame her? _She's only known us for a few days; I'm amazed she's as open as she is._ Botan thought to herself as Aria led them into a large room that reminded her slightly of the arena at the Dark tournament. Looking over at Kurama, Botan saw that it was bringing up bad memories for him too.

"Um, Aria," Botan tapped her shoulder. "Where are we going?"

The younger girl looked over her shoulder, positively beaming. "Huh? Oh, we're going to the Arena where they have all the battles and stuff. I thought you guys would like to see a few, plus they end in like, half an hour and then we can walk around until I have to go to my match."

"Are you sure you're ready for a match on such short notice?" Kurama asked in what sounded to Botan like a slightly worried tone.

"Yes, I'll be fine. I've been out practicing with my pokemon whenever you two go out and talk." She said with a hint of confidence. Since they had started staying at Aria's, Botan and Kurama had gone out to the clearing that they had first landed in to try and contact Koenma. The were usually gone for at least three quarters of an hour, including the walk to and from the house, which Kurama supposed could be enough time to practice, although he still didn't know enough information about the creatures to be sure.

Aria caught his unsure look and waved it away confidently. "Don't worry Kurama." She smiled at him. "I've been doing this ever since I was ten. I _do_ know what I'm doing."

"Okay." Kurama said, still a little concerned, but willing to let it go since she seemed to know more about the subject. Soon, his attention was focused on the two people standing at the ends of the large arena. Botan saw that each person had a pokemon standing in front of them. Or at least she assumed they were pokemon since she had never seen anything like the creatures before. Besides, Aria had said that this was a _pokemon_ contest, so those had to be pokemon. Now she just had to figure out which pokemon they were.

"Aria," She asked never taking her eyes from the battle that had just started. "What kind of pokemon are those?" She pointed to the two creatures that were now attacking each other with deliberate grace.

"Well," Aria said as she squinted to get a better look at the creatures that were now throwing attacks, which seemed to be more beautiful then anything else. "It looks like the flying one is a Butterfree and the small, whitish one is a Pachirisu." Aria made a face at the blue striped, energetic pokemon.

Botan managed to tear her gaze away from the contest to ask her guide a question. "What's wrong with the Pachirisu?" She saw that Kurama was eyeing the small creature like it was little kid that had had too much sugar.

"Well," Aria said looking down at the arena. "Pachirisu's are cute and all, but they're waaaaaaay to squirrelly for my taste. I mean look at that!" She pointed suddenly as the Pachirisu suddenly stopped trying to attack its opponent and lay down on its tail to take a nap. "It's basically just a hyper active squirrel with its own personal electric generator." She laughed as the Pachirisu's trainer started to yell at the small electric squirrel. "My friend had one once," She said almost sadly as her eyes focused on something or someone that was no longer there. "But then again, she had almost as much energy as Sachi did."

"Sachi?"(1) Kurama asked, completely ignoring the contest, which had ended at the sound of a loud buzzer.

"Yeah, he was always so happy and energetic and...bouncy," Aria went on, waving her hands vigorously as she spoke. "He drove me completely bonkers! He was always escaping his pokeball and getting into all my stuff. It was annoying more then anything." She conceded as she settled her hands back in her lap.

It was almost awkwardly silent for a moment before Botan realized that neither of her friends where going to talk. So she interrupted their silence for them.

"How long do these contests usually last?" She asked as two new contestants made their way out onto the field.

"Well," Aria said patting her knees and sitting up a little straighter as if she was dragging herself out of her own thoughts. "Each contest lasts three minutes and if a pokemon is hit by the others attack then that pokemon's trainer loses points. If no one attacks by the time the match is over, then both trainers get a warning and lose more points. All the attacks have to be beautiful too, otherwise they lose more points."

Kurama stopped her. "There seem to be a lot of ways to lose points."

Aria smiled. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure they out number the ways you can_earn_ them."

"Thanks for the explanation Aria, but that wasn't what I was asking really." Botan said. "What I meant was how long until all of the contests put together were over?"

"Oh," Aria said looking at her watch. "This should be the last one now." She said as two different trainers walked out into the arena. "Then we can hang out for awhile and look at everything."

"Okay!" Botan giddily punched the air then paid strict attention to the adorable creatures that began to swirl and dance in midair while Aria and Kurama began to talk.

* * *

And they kept on talking after the match ended and they, along with a very bouncy Botan, walked throughout the large building where the convention was being held. 

"So what exactly do you do at your job?" Aria asked curious.

"Well," Kurama thought about his step father's building and wondered if it was possible to make it sound interesting. The small grey building with its floors of small offices filled with people who never seemed to deviate from their work.

No, not possible.

"It's very boring," He told her truthfully. "Mostly I help to file paperwork."

She looked up at him, unbelieving. "That's it? You don't do anything else at all?"

"No," Kurama wasn't planning on telling her about any of his former occupations as thief or spirit detective. "I told you it was boring." He smiled as he nudged her with his elbow.

Botan watched in amazement from behind her friends. Maybe Kurama wouldn't need any sort of shove after all. He seemed to be doing very well on his own, even if he didn't know it. Botan did her best to stifle her laughter when she realized that both Kurama and Aria were oblivious to the other's feelings. But then again, Botan realized she had the advantage of a third person perspective. Maybe she should try to put it to better use tonight when she and Aria were talking before they went to sleep...

"Hey Botan!" The ferry girl looked up to see Aria and Kurama were waiting by an opening in the grey wall. "Come on; let's go so you two can actually get good seats.

"Oh okay, I'm coming!" She ran to catch up. She would have to think about what kind of hint to give Aria later.

* * *

They really did get good seats, Botan thought as she and Kurama cheered wildly when Aria appeared in the arena to their left. She stood straight, radiating confidence and pride to the audience and, more importantly, her opponent. 

The young woman standing opposite from the brown haired girl was blonde and pretty looking. She reminded Botan of a glass flower that would cut you apart with shards of glass if you broke it. Kurama saw nothing resembling a flower and was distinctly reminded of the girls at his school and work who continually tried to force their attention on him.

Aria narrowed her eyes at her challenger in recognition and dislike as the announcer told both girls to choose their first pokemon. The rules were simple. Each contestant may choose three pokemon to battle. Once one of the creatures was judged to weak to fight by the referee, the other player earned a point. The person with the most points at the end was the winner and would be able to go on to the next round.

Botan watched as Aria released Vixie from her red and white ball and then waited for the announcer to start the match.

The ref raised his flag and once both players were ready with their pokemon he whipped it down yelling, "Begin!"

The opponent's large flower like pokemon leapt forward, trying to crush Vixie beneath its weight before the smaller creature had a chance to attack. But a quick command from Aria sent Vixie dashing away, her small size now an advantage the large, clumsy flower didn't have.

"Oh come on Aria," The blonde haired flower called from her spot across the arena floor. "Are you just going to run away like always?" Aria didn't answer the other girl, just gave Vixie another command that sent her dodging out of harm's way.

"And what's with the little pokemon?" The other girl continued to taunt Aria, making Botan and Kurama mad. Although, Botan noticed, they seemed to be the only ones who could hear what the girl was saying above the roar of the crowd, so maybe that was why no one was trying to stop her from bullying the brown haired girl.

"I mean, didn't Marian already prove that you can't win a fight with a wimpy little thing like tha-?" The girl stopped dead as her pokemon fell heavily to the ground, making tiny little Vixie the winner.

It was in cases like these that Aria couldn't help but gloat.

"What was that Lexa?" She smirked triumphantly. "I couldn't hear you over the roar of the crowd. I think they like it when I win."

Lexa's face turned ugly with rage. "Just you wait," She said darkly as she drew out her next pokeball. "I'll beat you just like your stupid sickly friend."

Botan watched her new friend's face cloud over with rage and grief. Right then the ferry girl wanted nothing more then to run out and help her friend even though she wasn't quite sure how to. But Botan remained in her seat, realizing that this battle had just become oddly personal.

* * *

(1) Sachi means Happiness. 

Ta-da! A battle. Ooooo. Aaaaaa.

Zel: You can stop now. It wasn't even a whole battle.

Rose: Yes, but it will be. And besides, this battle is more interesting then others because it has a mystery. Who could Marian be?

Zel: I know, she's-

Rose: Hush, that was a rhetorical question for the audience, not a real question for you. Anyway, find out next time in Chapter Five of Aria.


	5. Chapter 5: Marian

Last update of the year! Plus, now I've updated all four of my stories in one month. It's amazing. Here's chapter five where you get find out who Marian is, or was. Or is. You have to read to know, hehehehe. Oh yeah, Merry Late Christmas and Happy New Year's Eve!

Zel: Ho ho ho and don't get burned by any firecrackers!

Rose: As Zel's Christmas present, I'm going to say my own disclaimer. So I don't own anyone if you have seen them on Tv, internet, or any other media product. Therefore, Aria, her Mom, Marian, and the bad guys are mine.

Zel: I don't know why she wants those last ones, but she does.

* * *

Chapter Five: Marian

"You're dead!" Lexa screamed as her new pokemon appeared in front of Vixie. This time there was no question as to who had the advantage. Vixie was overshadowed by a blue serpentine creature that could have easily wrapped itself around the small red fox-like being and squeezed her to death. However Kurama and Botan were both learning that most pokemon didn't use physical attacks in battle, which both thought was strange.

But obviously the creatures' other attacks were more then enough to fight and win Kurama realized as the slim blue serpent let loose a powerful blast that sent Vixie crashing into one of the high arena walls.

Aria bit back her cry of despair. She would not show Lexa any kind of weakness. Instead she soundlessly called Vixie back to her pokeball and quickly decided on her next move.

Kurama watched, thoroughly interested now, as Aria summoned Chu and sent him towards the more powerful pokemon. He watched as the other girl, Lexa, gave a short laugh when she saw that Aria had sent another miniature pokemon against her stronger, smarter, Dragonair.

"Don't you ever learn?" She laughed scornfully. "You can't use itsy bitsy things like that to beat me." She said as she nodded to her pokemon and then waited for her victory to unfold.

But Aria was to smart for that. She gave Chu a command that neither Kurama nor Botan could hear above the noise of the crowd. But they watched as the yellow mouse dodged the attack that had finished off Vixie and then swiftly disappeared into the dust cloud that the explosion from the other creature caused.

Kurama was slightly amused when the audience drew in a collective breath and then let it out in a huge cheer when they saw that Aria's small creature had once again beaten Lexa's larger, supposedly stronger, pokemon. The yellow and black mouse had used the cloud to climb on top of the large blue serpent and then had delivered an electric attack that had knocked the creature senseless. But the poor little creature fell over as well from the affects of its own blast.

"That makes it a tie." Kurama said more to himself then anyone, although Botan still answered him.

"Yes," She said. "And they both only have one pokemon left. I hope that Aria's has an advantage over the other like Chu did."

Kurama smiled. "Even if it doesn't, Aria has a way of making things work for her."

"Yes," Botan said, feeling better. "Yes, I suppose she does. Although it would be awful if she lost, especially since that other girl seems to be a very nasty person." Lexa threw out her last pokemon, making Botan stop in order to watch the end of the fight. Although she did give a squeal when Sweetheart jumped off of Aria's shoulders and landed firmly in front of the strange big eared pokemon that Lexa was using.

"Loudred, crush the kitty cat!" Lexa was close to screaming with rage after losing. The Loudred didn't give its trainer any answer. Instead it started to stomp noisily on the ground, shaking the stadium. Then it started to scream, causing the crowd, including Botan and Kurama although they didn't say anything about it, to cover their ears.

Aria was no exception and before the noise got to terrible she shouted at Sweetheart to do the same.

None to soon, the Loudred ceased its stomping and yelling and then suddenly launched itself at the small white cat that was still curled up in a ball that protected her ears. It leaped into the air and aimed to land on Sweetheart, crushing her, but all it did was add another crater to the arena floor. Sweetheart was sitting prettily behind it washing her paw of dust and waiting for the deafened creature to turn around and notice her.

Eventually it did, and by then the white Skitty had moved on to her other foot. Seeing its opponent standing there so calmly drove the creature in to a rage and it ran towards Sweetheart, the ground quaking underneath it.

Sweetheart casually looked up from her wash and just before the thing would have run into her, she took a large step to the side. It took the creature a moment to realize that it had missed its target. But when it did, it ran back around and once again ran towards Sweetheart head on. But halfway to her it started to scream again, causing everybody to flinch and throw their hands over their ears again. Sweetheart however, only flattened her ears against her skull and leaped over the advancing menace. She landed safely behind him and then quickly lashed out with her claws, leaving deep scratches in the Loudred's skin. Then before it could do more then screech again, she kicked it solidly in the middle of its back, sending it skidding across the dirt floor. Lexa started her own screaming as the Loudred didn't move.

The referee was just about to call Aria's victory when Sweetheart crumpled to the ground and yowled in pain. Aria looked wildly around for the source of her Skitty's pain, but the Loudred was still and there was nothing else around. She felt a pressure in her head as she tried to figure out what was wrong with Sweetheart, but she wasn't sure what was going on.

Kurama pressed on the bridge of his nose to try and lessen the pressure the Loudred's high pitched scream was causing. He knew from Aria's confused look that she didn't know that the creature was emitting a sound that humans couldn't hear, but Sweetheart could. He wished that he could at least tell Aria that the Loudred was the cause of her pokemon's discomfort, but he had a good feeling that that would get her disqualified, which would defeat the purpose of her two previous wins over Lexa. She looked over at him silently asking for help, however Kurama didn't get the chance to give her a hint or not because Sweetheart suddenly lurched to her feet and raced towards the Loudred that still lay face down on the ground. She slammed into it, making the creature fly a few more feet away from her. The pressure between Kurama's eyes immediately lessened, and Sweetheart, feeling the difference, slammed into the stubborn being until it finally fell silent.

It was very quiet for a moment before the crowd erupted into ecstatic cheers. Aria ran to pick up Sweetheart as the referee named her winner. The white cat like creature purred softly as her girl began to scratch her head, easing her headache even more.

Lexa was raging in her corner of the arena. She flung her empty pokeballs at the stone wall, earsplitting screams erupting from her mouth. Eventually she stalked over to Aria, ranting at her all across the arena.

"You think you're so great with all your stupid baby pokemon? You can't even beat a decent pokemon head on. All you do is sneak around, just like your idiot friend did." Even from his seat, Kurama could see Aria freeze with apprehension. Lexa saw it too and sensing her foe's weakness, she latched on to Aria's terror like a bulldog.

"What," Lexa was smiling viscously as she approached Aria at an easier pace. "You think I never noticed you two run rampant around town, skipping school before she croaked? The whole town saw it! The only reason no one ever punished you was because they felt sorry for that simpleton who was your friend. If she hadn't been si-"

"SHUT UP!" Aria finally screamed at the spiteful girl and raised her hand to smack her across her pretty face.

Her hand jerked to a stop above her head. She saw through water filled eyes that Kurama had grabbed her wrist at the last second, stopping her from doing something stupid and rash.

She was going to start crying and she knew it. She walked as quickly as she could towards the exit, not taking her eyes off the ground. Kurama wasn't even a step behind her and Botan only took the time to tell the referee a cockamamie story about a sudden family emergency.

Of course she was only half lying.

* * *

Aria walked straight home. Her friends stayed close until they reached the forest that led to her house. Then subtly they dropped back a few steps, although she wouldn't have noticed even if they had told her through a bull horn. 

"Should we do anything?" Botan asked quietly as she anxiously watched her new friend tramp oblivious through the tall trees.

The fox spirit shook his head. "No, let's leave her be until we find out who Marian is."

Botan nodded and they spent the rest of the walk in silence.

When they reached the house, Aria went directly to her room, ignoring her mother's questions about the convention, and locked the door behind her, not even letting Sweetheart inside with her.

"What happened?" Mrs. Cullen asked once the door closed.

"We're not sure." Botan said and then quickly explained about Lexa and Aria's battle and the exchange that had followed.

"Oh dear," Was all Mrs. Culler said as she sank into a chair. For a long while she only sat there and seemed to think about what to do.

Then slowly she nodded. "Marian," She said softly, sitting back in her chair. "Was Aria's best friend for as long as I can remember." She paused, remembering the sweet girl with bright hair and even brighter eyes who loved to run around town, even though it left her so tired and frail. "Unfortunately," Mrs. Cullen continued. "She was very sick. I'm still not sure what it was that she had, but I know it wasn't curable and she would most likely die before she reached her twenties."

"I'm sorry." Botan finally whispered when Mrs. Cullen didn't speak again.

The elder woman squeezed her hand in thanks and then wiped away the tears that were starting to gather in her eyes.

"Aria was heartbroken when she died."

* * *

Youko waited until Aria had dropped into a fitful sleep before silently entering her room. After noiselessly closing the door, which is much harder without thumbs and fingers then one might think, he jumped up onto the bed next to the teary girl. Carefully, he lie down next to her and let his consciousness slip from his body to join wherever it was that Aria had let her dreams take her. 

The spirit fox found it very easy to find the teenage girl's dream self. She was drifting sadly above her dream about her younger self and another girl that Youko assumed was Marian. They were dancing excitedly throughout the forest that Kurama and Botan had first fallen into, although Marian looked unusually pale in the half light of the trees. He realized that Aria didn't look much younger then she did now, so this couldn't have happened very long ago.

After watching Aria's dream for a few moments, Youko trotted up her dream form, which was still watching her dream with weepy eyes.

"What are you doing?" He asked in a low voice so as not to startle her.

"I'm crying!" She said, her voice jerking with her sobs. "So go away!"

Naturally, it would take more then that to dissuade a thousand year old fox thief from learning what he wanted to know.

"She died soon after this, didn't she?" He asked in an even softer voice then the first. Aria burst into more sobs, but nodded her head for an answer.

Youko didn't say anything and instead let the distraught girl bury her fingers in his fur and cling to him as if he were a lifeline. As she cried, he watched her dream that continued to play in front of him like a movie that couldn't pause. He realized that the two girls had been close, more like adopted sisters then anything else. It was strange to watch them. In Makai, even in the human world where he lived now, people rarely connected to others in such a fashion. Usually they would live their daily lives never reaching more then the superficial level of familiarity and demons would rather die then be caught dead because of a misplaced trust, so they rarely worked together except for personal benefit.

Eventually, Aria's sobs slowed and Youko backed up a few steps. He let her watch with red eyes as he shifted to his more human form. Then slowly, because in her already troubled state he was afraid she would scare herself awake before he could talk to her, he sat down cross legged next to her.

Aria had the distinct feeling she should be more frightened by the semi human man that was sitting comfortably next to her, but she was too upset to care much about anything. So when the strange silver eared man pulled her into a firm hug, she didn't really struggle. Her whole body felt...deadened and heavy, like she had huge sacks of rocks tied to her wrists and ankles. She couldn't cry anymore, although her eyes stayed red as they tried to force out more tears.

"My poor blue rose." The amber eyed man said softly as he soothingly rubbed her back. "One hard life only led to another and this time you weren't the one who was forced to flee through death." Aria didn't understand what the strange man was saying, but his voice was low and soothing and Aria found she was being lulled into a deeper, dreamless sleep.

She shook herself. She didn't want to stop dreaming, to stop remembering her friend. The man must have notice her shiver because she felt him look down at the top of her head. Hazily she looked up to meet his gaze. Vaguely, she saw he had striking eyes that reminded her of molten gold.

"You don't remember me do you." It wasn't a question so Aria didn't answer. "Oh well, you will, although I hope you won't take to long to do so. Now," He gently brushed her hair away from her closing eyes. "Get some real sleep."

* * *

It was dark by the time Aria woke up again. After her very strange dream with the tall silver colored man, Aria had fallen into a deeper sleep so she didn't have to suffer the other dreams about her and Marian. 

Slowly, she ambled out of bed and shuffled into the kitchen where everybody else happened to be.

"Hi Aria," Botan said with forced cheer. "Did you sleep well?"

Aria only gave a muffled, "ugh," then roughly grabbed the juice carton from the fridge.

"I'll be outside." She mumbled sounding somewhere between fatigue and grief as she let the door slam shut behind her.

"Oh dear." Botan said under her breath as she watched through the window as Aria sat down on the front steps. Her mother didn't bother to stay and watch her seventeen (?) year old daughter torture herself with her heartache. She stood up slower then usual and left the room. After the small clap from Mrs. Cullen's door drifted softly to the kitchen, Botan turned away from the window.

"What do we do?" She started to ask her friend, but she stopped when she saw that the screen door was already banging shut behind him.

For once Botan decided not to stick her nose in other peoples' business and instead went into her makeshift bedroom to try and contact Koenma again.

* * *

Kurama sat down quietly next to Aria on the top most step of the Cullen's back porch. He gazed out across their watery backyard as the sun sank lower, sending reds and oranges across the teal-blue waters in a marvelous painting. 

"What was she like?" He finally asked quietly.

"What do you care?" Aria's voice was thick from crying and she sniffed noisily to stop her nose from running any more.

"Because sometimes it's best to talk about what happened, if only so you remember the better times that you had together."

"And what would you know!" Aria snapped. She was tired of people always trying to tell her that they understood. That they knew what she was feeling. That they felt Marian's death as profoundly as she did.

Kurama's silence seemed to tell Aria everything. She was right; he didn't really know what she felt, he didn't really care.

"A good friend of mine was killed a few years ago."

Aria stopped her thoughts in their tracks.

"I'm sorry." She muttered, sounding like she was going to start crying again. "I guess I'm just so used to people telling me how they understand what I'm going through that I don't believe them anymore."

"I can understand that." Kurama's voice was soft enough that Aria didn't think she had heard him at first.

It was silent again as both Kurama and Aria stared out at the sea, swimming in their thoughts.

"What was she like?" Kurama asked again.

Aria sighed heavily. "She was…vibrant. No matter how sick she was she always loved to be outside and run around for as long as she could." Aria said, throwing up her arms. "People would always be telling her that she couldn't go out, that she couldn't play with the other kids because she would only make herself sick. Not that that ever stopped her," The red eyed Aria clarified quickly as she sniffed her nose again. "She would sneak out of her room as soon as her mom left the room just to swing on their tire swing in the back yard."

"I bet her parents were happy about that." Kurama said, prompting her to talk more about her lost friend.

Aria actually laughed, a short bark of sound that encouraged the heavy mood surrounding them to lift a little. "Yes, so happy," Aria sarcasm was weak as she wiped a few more tears from the corners of her eyes. "They were always upset when they found out she was missing, although after she and I became friends, they always looked for her first at our house."

"When did you meet her?" Kurama asked as he scooted a little closer to Aria.

Aria's eyes were more watery then before. "We met at school. It was one of the few days she was able to come to school before her illness made it too difficult for her to go to public school. Mom and I had just moved here and I was 'the new kid'" Aria put air quotes around the last phrase to emphasize her disdain for the cliques and standards of elementary schools. "But we both fit into that category of misfits; me because I was new and her because she was fatally ill." She paused to blow her nose on one of the tissues that Kurama had thought to bring out with him.

"Thanks," She said with a final dab at her nose and eyes. "She was also the one that really loved the baby pokemon, you know." Aria said in a little clearer voice. "When I was little I could care less about Skitties and Evees and all them. No, I was more interested in the big beautiful pokemon that could wipe out buildings in a single blow."

"But Marian was the one that liked the little guy, right?" Kurama asked honestly interested in what Aria remembered about her dearest friend.

"Yes," Aria said wistfully as she gazed out at the darkening horizon. "She thought that the underdog needed as much support and help as the crowd favorite. I guess she liked the little guys because she could sympathize with them more. She was like them, she could understand them, she could see that they had as much potential as any other pokemon."

Kurama saw that Aria was beginning to lose to her grief again. "That and they were cute." The fox spirit was awarded with a heartbreaking smile, but a smile none the less.

"So," She said after taking a shaky breath. "What about your friend? What was he like?"

Kurama leaned forward and stared at the now dark blue-black sea, deep in thought. Aria was about to change the subject and suggest that they go inside when Kurama sat up straighter.

"Kuronue was, oh, I suppose most people would call him playful. He didn't like to follow the rules," Aria slid back to lean against one of the poles of wood that supported the porch overhang. She never took her eyes off Kurama's face as she listened to him tell about his rambunctious, rule breaking friend.

Aria managed to laugh at Kurama's stories of his friend's childish antics. He had just finished telling her a story of when Kuronue had gotten into a fight with a stubborn rooster (the rooster won) when Aria finally asked, "How can you stand it?"

Kurama stopped laughing and looked seriously at the slender seventeen year old sitting across from him. "Stand what?"

"Laughing. Being happy. Smiling." She said, her distressed tone returning.

Kurama let out a thoughtful breath of air. "I'm not sure you want to hear that answer right now." He told her truthfully.

Aria drew her knees to her chest and clasped her hands tight around them, all the time never meeting Kurama's vivid green gaze.

"I think you're right." She finally said very quietly, like she was talking to herself more then to Kurama. "I don't think I want to smile yet."

After a moment of gloomy silence, Kurama stood up and offered Aria his hand. "Come on," He told her, motioning with his hand for her to get up. "Let's go inside. It's dark and you're still tired from earlier." She took his hand and he pulled her up.

"Thank you Kurama." She told him quietly after the screen door had shut with a clack behind them. "For listening, not many people do that anymore."

Kurama stopped in the doorway of his current bedroom. He looked at the young lady standing across the room and was hit with a strange moment of déjà vu. He had the feeling that she and he had done this before, although he also thought that it had ended in a very different way. The vague and insubstantial feeling annoyed the organized demon human.

He shook his head to clear it but only said, "You're welcome," and then left the room.

Kurama waited until he heard Aria pad silently to her room and the door close behind her before he settled himself onto the fold out bed fully dressed and awake to chide him self.

He was being irrational. He had never seen Aria before in his life, human or otherwise, so all he was remembering was a vague sense of déjà vu. A false sense of déjà vu. And yes, while she was not an unattractive girl, it would be stupid to consider her as more than a friend. He, Botan, and Youko both needed to return to Spirit World as soon as they were able to break through the barrier that was now surrounding them. At most it would take a day or two more for Koenma to open a hole large enough for them to get through. They could not afford distractions.

He could not afford distractions.

* * *

"…ama…" Words drifted through Kurama's dreamscape. His dream self ignored them and returned his attention to his friends. 

The three of them were relaxing in their more permanent home in one of the darker forests of Makai where no one except the either incredibly strong or the incredibly stupid.

Kuronue was still trying to convince the blue haired woman who was sitting on one of the seat cushions that Youko was part of the latter. Youko was pretty sure that he was joking, but with a demon like Kuronue it was hard to sure some times.

"Kurama!"

Kurama shot up in bed with a start, startling Botan and nearly flinging his other half off the bed as well. He looked out the window to see that the sky was now tinged grey with early morning. Kurama realized that he had fallen asleep sometime during the night as he lay in bed thinking.

"What is it Botan?" Kurama asked looking at the small alarm clock that sat on the bedside table next to him as Youko cautiously came back to listen. "What is so important that you had to wake me up at five in the morning?"

"And why did you have to do it in such a way as to make him throw me off the bed?" Youko added under his breath in a sulky tone.

"Lord Koenma has opened a hole in the barrier, but it won't last long. A few hours at the most, so we need to go now." She spoke urgently, in a business like tone that was strange coming from the bubbly woman.

"Okay Botan, I'll be right out." Kurama told her, still half asleep.

"Fine, but hurry."

* * *

Five minutes later, both Botan and Kurama sped through the forest towards the clearing where they had first tried to return home. All manners of pokemon scattered at the two almost humans rushed past the burrows and nests, shocking most of the inhabitants from sleep. 

They made it to the clearing in just less than seven minutes, a record time considering that on average the journey was roughly fifteen to twenty minutes.

They didn't speak as Botan summoned her oar and they both climbed on. Kurama hung on tight as the ground fell away beneath them to be replaced only with a rush of air.

* * *

No! Arashi would not let the three of them get away, especially the fox thief. His master would not be pleased to hear that he, Arashi, his most loyal servant, had let a couple of lower class demons and two powerless girls slip through his fingers. Arashi might not be able to withstand the punishment he would surely receive for such a foolish mistake. 

Quickly, the black hearted demon squeezed the breach shut, cutting off the Raikaians only way of escape.

* * *

CRACK!!! 

The sound of two bodies crashing to earth, through the thick branches and dense foliage echoed throughout the forest, frightening the creatures that lived there.

Then there was silence.

Stubbornly, Youko forced his injured body to stand. Amazingly enough both he and his human form had lived through the fall after Botan and her oar had disappeared through the break in the barrier that led back to Reikai. But before he and Shuichi could follow, the gap closed abruptly, leaving the two of them high in the air without any kind of safety net. It was probably only due to their demonic strengths that they had lived at all.

Of course, surviving the fall would become pointless if they died from their injuries instead. Keeping this in mind, Youko set off through the trees and underbrush towards Aria's house, hoping that someone would be awake enough to help.

* * *

Zel: Poor poor Aria...u.u  
Rose: Yes, its sad, and now Kurama and Youko are hurt as well as stuck in PokeLand. Poor them too.  
Zel: I suppose we'll all just have to wait until chapter six before you tell us if they'll be okay, huh?  
Rose: Yes, but as an award for everyone's paitence-  
Zel: Which I'm sure will come in handy.  
Rose: Would you please be nice? Any way, you all will get to learn more about Aria and why Youko called her 'the blue rose'  
Zel: What I want to know is when he and Kurama are getting back together.  
Rose: o.O Excuse me?  
Zel: No! I meant when their going to be, what do they call it, merged together, like they were at the begining.  
Rose: Oh...yeah that...  
Zel: Did you honestly forgot?  
Rose: Yes. No. Maybe so.  
Zel: Fine be that way, I'm going outside to watch the fireworks, so see ya next year everybody!  
Rose: Wait for me! Oh, and don't forget to send feedback please everybody. See you in 2008! 


	6. Chapter 6: Adia

Wow, this one's really long. I hope you like it. I also hope you tell me what you like, or don't like if that's how it is.

* * *

Chapter Six: Adia

Botan stood before Koenma's desk gripping her oar tightly with both hands.

"What are we going to do Lord Koenma?" She asked in such a soft voice that Koenma thought he must be hearing things. He looked up at his best ferry girl and realized that it was her worry for Kurama that was making her so miserable.

"I'm sure he is fine Botan." He reassured her once more. "He is more then capable of surviving a demon stupid enough to challenge him, much less a short drop to the forest floor.

"Even though he and Youko were still separate?" Botan asked, wanting to believe Koenma, but they had been so high and the breach had closed so suddenly.

"Separate they are even more of a challenge to deal with." Koenma said, carefully avoiding any more mention of the fall. He could not have his best team distracted right now with Xryna as the threat.

Botan looked more like her old self. "Yes, yes you're right, I'm sure they're both fine." She wiped her eyes and then met her prince's gaze.

"Good, now I need you to go find Hiei. He's in Makai waiting for instructions. Tell him to inform King Enki what we know about Xryna."

Botan bowed. "Yes sir."

* * *

Kurama struggled to swim to the surface of consciousness. He felt…lightheaded, like he had had too much cough syrup or some other household medicine. He thought he could hear voices floating around above his head, but they were faint, like someone was talking from another room.

"Is he okay?" A familiar worried voice whispered hoarsely, like it had been crying often within a short amount of time.

"I don't know dear." Another more mature, but equally worried voice answered. "We've done all we can and now we just have to wait until he wakes up."

Kurama didn't move as the two women talked on the other side of the room. What had happened? One moment he had been with Botan about to return to Spirit World and the next…

The next moment the gap was closed and Kurama was fifty feet in the air without an oar. He had fallen and amazingly enough he hadn't died. That puzzled him. Even with his demonic powers and body structure, he should not have been able to survive that fall while separated from Youko.

A soft sound reminded Kurama that the Cullens were still nearby.

"Come on hon, let's let him sleep." Mrs. Cullen said as she opened the door as quietly as she could.

"Okay," Aria's voice still sounded strained. "I'll be there in a minute." She stayed quiet as her mother closed the door behind her with a soft click, then she just as quietly tried to gain control of the sobs that still escaped her. Kurama couldn't take it.

"I'm not dead Aria." He said giving no other sign that he was awake.

At least not yet. After Aria practically jumped on him in her relief he wondered briefly if the white stars dancing in front of his eyes were part of the white light he had heard about. Fortunately they weren't, otherwise Aria may have brought him back and killed him again for dying.

Fresh tears stained Kurama's already dirty shirt. It took him a moment to calm Aria down again.

"Aria," He spoke softly so as not to alert her mother. "Aria you're overreacting. I am fine."

She glared at him with red eyes. "Liar," she said and then poked him where her mother had placed a large bandage on his arm. Kurama bit back a yelp. From the look on Aria's face however, he hadn't succeeded as well as he had hoped. As politely as he could, Kurama shoved Aria off him and then looked down to see the extent of his injuries while she made herself more comfortable on the edge of the bed.

They were not as bad as he had first thought they would be. Maybe the fall hadn't been as severe as he had estimated.

Or, he thought looking around for a familiar silver fox, maybe it was worse.

'_Youko?'_ Kurama asked silently as he searched for his other half in his usual places inside his head.

'_Yes, I'm here.'_ Youko replied sounding like a sulky kid who had been forced to go to his room. _'Yes, I'm alive. Yes we are back to normal. And yes I'm stuck in here. Can I come out again?'_

Kurama did not have time to answer. For a moment, however brief, he had completely forgotten that Aria was still there, sitting next to him on the bed.

"Are you talking to him?" She whispered, startling him.

"What?" Kurama wondered what she could be referring to when Youko added in a bored tone, _'I suppose I should mention that Aria was the first one to find us as well.'_

Kurama's eyes snapped up to meet Arai's brown ones. He was perfectly still; waiting for the outrage or fear that he was sure would follow once Aria realized that he was not as human as he appeared.

But it never came. Aria continued to stare at him, waiting for an answer. Finally Kurama regained enough of his composure to give her a small, "Yes," but still she just sat next to him, looking shocked.

"I saw him," She tried to say, but could not seem to find the right words. "I saw him…jump into you." She tried again. "At first I thought I was just seeing things, but then you started to get, better," She said her voice growing steadier as she continued. To Kurama's surprise, Aria looked more amazed at his inhumanness than anything else, but then again she might have just been hiding her terror while he was close by.

Kurama remembered Aria's show of grief the day before and her enthusiasm when he woke a few moments before and decided that Aria could not hide her stronger feelings if her life depended on it.

So why was she so calm? Apart from Kuwabara and Yusuke, humans who discovered Kurama's true nature usually needed a good dose dream pollen before they returned to normal.

"So," Aria said slowly, getting Kurama's attention. "Is Botan a, a-whatever-you-are too?"

Kurama laughed. "No," He said before lowering his voice to a whisper. "But she's not exactly human either." He confided.

"Oh," Aria said still looking more confused than frightened. "Is she okay? We couldn't find her anywhere and when I saw the, the uh-" She stuttered and Kurama finally heard the fear he had been waiting for.

"The what?" He asked softly, not wanting to scare her more than he undoubtedly already was.

Aria looked up at the red haired fox, her brown eyes filled with terror as she met his steady gaze. "The man." She said in a low whisper. "He was there when Youko and I found you. He was…had-" Aria's voice cracked like she was going to start crying again. Kurama took her hand and squeezed it gently, not knowing what else to do, and then waited patiently for Aria to continue.

After taking a shaky breath, Aria continued. "He had a, a long glowing rod." She said grabbing a pen and a pad of paper out of the bedside table drawer and drawing what looked like a stick figure holding a wriggling stick with her free hand. "It was neon yellow and it kept throwing off sparks." She drew little twisted lines connected to the stick and then handed Kurama the paper. "I think he was going to stab you with it."

Kurama studied the picture, trying to think of anything that resembled the electric staff that Aria had seen, but nothing came to mind. "What did he look like?" He asked instead.

"He had black hair, but I think he dyed it because I could see bits of bright yellow showing near the top of his head and his eyes were a dark gray, like clouds during a really bad storm." She said with a little shudder at the memory, clinging tighter to Kurama's hand.

Kurama did not mind that she was squeezing the life out of his hand. Neither did Youko, which surprised him. _"Youko?"_ Kurama asked as Aria let her attention drift back to the night before. _"What are you doing?"_ Kurama felt strange, like he was vibrating, and he was sure that it was because of the deep rumbling sound that only he seemed able to hear. Or feel rather. _"Are you __purring__?"_ Kurama asked in disbelief wondering if that was even possible for a fox to do.

Apparently it was, or at least it was for spirit foxes that lived in a human body, because Youko denied it in a happy voice that made his other half think of little kids when they were being sneaky.

_"I don't think I've ever heard you act like this with an ordinary human woman before."_ Kurama said, wondering if there was something the old fox had not told him. Like maybe Aria was a descendant of a demon like Yusuke or some kind of psychic like Kuwabara or Genkai.

_"Oh,"_ Youko said still sounding ridiculously happy. _"We go a lo-ong way back Adia and I."_

Kurama wondered if maybe Youko was intoxicated in some way, shape, or form to be saying Aria's name wrong, but he had never heard of a way where Youko could be drunk, for example, while his body was not.

Aria finally drifted back to reality. "What are we going to do?" She asked her voice scared as she looked over at Kurama. "I don't think he was human and he only ran away when Youko and I appeared. He didn't vanish or anything."

Kurama sighed, afraid for some reason to tell Aria that he would have to leave as soon as he could. "I'm not sure. I think it would be best if we just stayed put and didn't do anything noteworthy. Maybe this, man will reappear and I can find out why he's keeping me here."

"Keeping? You're trying to leave?" Aria asked, her face going white as she clung even tighter to Kurama's hand. "When? To where?"

Kurama tried to slow the stream of questions as Aria started to panic for some strange reason he was afraid to comprehend. She could not like him that much so quickly could she? No, that was stupid. But then again, if she knew Youko from once upon a time like the old fox had said then maybe there was nothing more to this than friendship, even she did not seem to remember him.

Youko laughed as Kurama tried to calm Aria down.

"I'm not leaving soon I suspect," He said trying to sound soothing. "Don't worry." He smiled at her and freed his hands so he could put one on each side of her face. Then, unexpectedly, he kissed her. Right on her forehead.

* * *

"Lord Koenma, there's something I don't quite understand." Botan said as she placed a large stack of papers on Koenma's desk. Each paper made some mention, no matter how stupid or trivial, to Xryna and as soon as Ogre was done weeding out the dumb and unimportant ones, it was Koenma's job to find what may be necessary to Yusuke and the others.

"What is it Botan?" Koenma asked already busy with another stack of papers.

"Well, during the three days that Youko was missing here, he said a year had passed in Aria's world."

Koenma nodded. "Yes, there's some kind of time distortion that no one here has been able to understand yet."

"Yes, but Kurama and I were there for almost five days and about three days passed here again. Shouldn't either less time have passed here or more time passed there or something like that?"

Koenma looked up from the paper he was scanning. "You have a good point Botan." He said slightly ashamed of himself that he had not realized the fluctuating time difference before. He drew a line under what he had already read, marking his place before he placed the paper he was reading off to the side. "I'm not sure what could have caused this shift to happen." He admitted as his mind worked fiercely to try and figure out what might have caused the difference. "_He_ I suppose could be playing with the times, making them more compatible with each other. That would make it easier for Kurama and Youko to return here. But it doesn't make sense to me if that's what he's doing, especially since he's the one trying so hard to keep them where they are." Koenma put his chin on the tips of his fingers and gazed into the distance, looking for some explanation that made sense.

Botan quietly thought about what the child-like prince had just said. "Maybe someone else is trying to make it easier for Kurama to get back." She hoped optimistically.

"Maybe," Koenma said softly. "But that would take an enormous amount of power. _He _would be able to do it, but it would be difficult especially since he's still trapped and unable to use his full power."

Botan nodded and went to go get another stack of papers from Ogre. She was just about to slip out the door when she thought she heard Koenma speak, but when she turned to ask him what he wanted, he waved her on without saying another word.

_"Just what we need,"_ Botan had thought he had said, _"another superpower playing with humanity."_

* * *

Aria sat stone still on her porch. She stared out at the budding greenery before her without seeing it as strange images played over and over in her mind. The strange part was that most of the images had really happened not five minutes ago when Kurama, her friend Kurama, had kissed her on the forehead.

Aria touched the spot again, above and in between her eyes, where Kurama had kissed her. She felt…funny. Clean was a better word actually. It kind of felt like a dam had broken and a stream full of memories and emotions was rushing around in her head, cleaning out all of the dusty corners she had forgotten were there.

It was weird. Especially some of the pictures that Aria was half sure were real. Like the image of the white haired man with pointed ears growing out of the top of his head and the man with black hair and wings showing over his shoulders. They were thieves she thought. Dead thieves if these suddenly flowing memories were true. She remembered the man with white hair mourning the death of the one in black and she had been there. But that could not have happened. First of all, these people had wings and animal ears and second, she was only seventeen, going to be eighteen next month. She was not even alive when the bird man died. How could she remember them at all?

But another voice was asking her, "How could you forget?"

* * *

Kurama lay in the room that Botan had been using while they were at the Cullen's. He had told Aria's mother that his sister had had a sudden emergency come up with one of her friends in the next town over and would get back home from there. Fortunately, Mrs. Cullen believed him and had left him alone so he could rest. Little did she know that he was already well enough to leave, but since he was supposed to be human, he figured he should act like one.

Which meant he was left alone, doing nothing except talking with Youko for most of the day. Kurama was sure it should be classified as a form of torture since the spirit fox was still loopy from whatever effect Aria had on him. Mostly he just sighed and rolled over in whatever corner of his mind that Youko lived in.

_"Sigh"_

Kurama closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the headboard in frustration. _"What is it now?"_ He asked silently, hoping that Youko would actually answer him this time.

_"You know I don't tell you everything."_ Youko said, sounding a little saner then before. Kurama sighed, used to the old answer even if it did aggravate him. Kurama knew very well that Youko kept a few things to himself. The miscellaneous thoughts and memories weighed down on Kurama's mind like a locked trunk. They were heavy and whenever Kurama asked about them, Youko would either ignore him or tell him to mind his own business.

_"Would you like me to show you, or tell you?"_ Youko asked, shocking Kurama. _"Well?"_ Youko prodded his human half trying to get an answer.

_"Show me."_ He said wanting truthful answers instead of lies that he was afraid Youko would tell to make his story sound better.

He could almost feel Youko smirk at his unspoken thought, but he did not say anything as he opened his trunk, letting part of the bundle of memories out. Once it was open, he just sat back and let the contents rush out to let Kurama see.

Kurama felt like he was watching a movie through Youko's eyes. Dark trees passed swiftly by on either side as Youko ran through one of Makai's many forests. He was almost to the small river that marked the end of Aheen's territory and the beginning of his own. In a way Kurama could feel Youko's emotions and expression's even though this had happened more than a decade ago at the very least.

Youko laughed as he burst through the trees into sight of the slowly running water, thinking he was safe and far from anyone else. He jerked to a stop when he saw that someone was bent over the smooth river water. He thought for a brief moment that it was another bounty hunter trying to collect the reward that one of the three kings had slapped on his head, but he changed his mind when he saw that what he thought was a weapon was only a plate filled with water. The water sparkled in the shallow dish making a mirror that reflected the face of the woman holding it.

She was obviously a fox. That much was clear from her ears, tail, and unique energy signature that most fox spirits had. What was strange about her was her hair. It was blue. As far as Youko knew, only Ice Maidens and a few water elementals had naturally blue hair, and this was a fox. Maybe she dyed her hair, but both her tail and ears were the same color and it was much more difficult to color those. Youko should know; he had tried it before.

The woman finally noticed him. She stood up quickly, startled by his presence. The water fell out of the dish as she lost control of it and clutched the shallow bowl to her chest like she was afraid that he would take it away from her. It was not a completely unfounded fear, but Youko had seen, and stolen, much finer dishes then the one she had.

"Who are you?" The woman asked.

Youko smiled. "You stole the words right out of my mouth lady." He said. "Who are _you_?"

The lady eyed him. "I asked first." She said persistently and lifted her chin in a show of stubbornness.

Youko was slightly surprised that this stranger did not know who he was. "Youko Kurama." He said hoping to spark some sort of recognition.

It did not work. "Nadia." She said. "But I prefer Adia."

Youko took a few steps forward, Adia watching him cautiously the entire time. "So Adia, how did you get your hair to turn that amazing color?" Youko asked wondering if he had just found a new disguise.

Adia looked confused. "Well, I'm afraid you'll have to ask my parents that question and since I don't know where they are you'll just have to wait like the rest of us to meet them."

"Your parents permanently dyed your hair blue? Why did they do that?"

Adia rolled her eyes. "No," She said annoyed. "I was born like this stupid."

Youko nearly laughed at Adia's audacity to insult him, but her honesty kept him in check. He had heard rumors of odd colored kitsune's, everybody had. Mothers had been telling stories about foxes with blue, violet, and sometimes greenish colored fur that had abilities beyond the normal illusions that most of them had. The stories said that these colorful foxes had more elemental powers like water, earth, and, very rarely, light. They also said that the reason the elemental foxes were different colors was because they grew so close to their element through their gift that they absorbed enough of it to alter their appearance. So a blue fox, like Adia, would control water, which could also explain the mirror she had made with the stream water.

"So you are looking for your parents then?" Youko asked wondering if he had accidentally stumbled upon something greater then a new disguise. Adia nodded, still unsure of Youko and his intensions, as she ought to be.

Youko saw her suspicions and decided not to push her too far. "Well if you need any help," He said nonchalantly. "I'd be glad to give you a hand."

"Yeah, as long as I give you something in return." Adia spit. "So what is it? What do you want? Wealth? Power? I think I've heard them all by now and quite honestly I'm sick of it. It's like I can't travel anywhere without people trying to get something from me."

Youko smirked. "You're a smart girl Adia. I guess that's why no one's succeeded at tricking you yet, yes?"

"Just because I've been sheltered all my life doesn't mean I'm stupid." She said, losing some of her viciousness. Youko watch, amused, as the fur on her tail smoothed out from the puffball it had turned into as Adia got angrier.

A sharp cracking sound got both foxes attention and they stood still trying to figure out what was rushing through the forest at this time of day. Youko figured it out first. He swore quietly before grabbing Adia and leaping across the stream and into a very leafy tree. He ducked behind the many shifting leaves and branches, holding Adia still next to him. He kept one hand over her mouth in case she decided to protest, but once she saw the creatures that burst out of the trees on the other side of the flowing water, it was not necessary.

Aheen had sent a handful of his worst guards as well as one or two brilliant ones to search this area of the forest. He must have been expecting Youko to try a different way because the thief knew that Aheen had a much stronger force then these pathetic demons. Most of them were thick and pig like, snorting through the underbrush looking for a clue as to where Youko had gone. All they really had going for them were their strength and size. Their eyesight and sense of smell were terrible so Youko was not too worried. They would not be able to find them high in the tree hidden behind the dense foliage because of their own physical limitations.

But from the look on her face, Adia was not so sure. She must have lived a _very_ sheltered life Youko assumed if she had never even seen these common grunts.

The pig guards left soon enough and Youko nimble jumped out of the tree. He was about to leave, Adia was too inexperienced to be any help to him, when he saw that she was still sitting on the branch, clinging to the bough for dear life.

"Adia?" Youko asked softly so as not to startle her. "Are you going to come down?"

"What was I thinking?" She spoke so quietly that Youko could barely hear her.

"Excuse me?" He asked wondering if she was even talking to him.

"You should have never left home. I don't care if it was burned to the ground. You could have rebuilt it. You would have been safe and instead you're out here with a power hungry fox and a gang of pig things." Adia whined to herself ignoring the fox thief.

"Are you going to come down or should I leave you here for the grunts to find?" Youko said more loudly then before.

Adia looked down, the fear that had covered her face melting into some mix of anger and astonishment as she saw Youko standing there waiting for her.

"Why haven't you left yet?" She asked not sure whether she should be anger, suspicious, or grateful that Youko was still there.

"Why haven't you let go of that poor tree yet? You're starting to hurt it." Adia looked down and saw that her sharpened nails were leaving little gouges in the thick branch. Carefully she unhooked herself from the tree and jumped to the ground.

"Well," She said when she was standing in front of Youko. "What do you want?"

Youko thought about that. He was sure he could find some use for her, especially if Adia was as strong as the stories said most elemental foxes were. Then again her display in the tree had shown she was incredibly naïve by Makai's standards, which could make it difficult for her to live among Youko's followers, but then again, he was sure he could help protect her from some of the crazier thieves and it seemed she could deflect most of the others.

"I don't know." Youko said truthfully as he cocked his head to one side and looked at Adia a little while longer. "You are a very strange woman Adia." He said in an almost complementary tone. "And I will be glad to have you as my guest," he said smilingly almost playfully, "for awhile at least."

Adia did not know quite what to think of that. "And what do you want in return?"

Youko smiled again. "I would like to see what you can do. You certainly have a very powerful gift and that would be a great help to me but," His smile widened. "I'm not sure that you're cut out for the life I lead."

Adia only rose part way to the bait. "Who says I want to lead the life you do?" She said placing her hands on her hips in a show of disapproval. Then she grew very serious, thinking over Youko's offer. "If I help you, will you help me find out what happened to my parents?"

Judging from her tone, Youko guessed she already had a good idea of what had happened to her parents, but he saw no harm in helping her confirm her guess. "Alright." He shrugged.

"Deal." Adia said quickly before she had time to change her mind and locked hands with Youko. "My help for yours."

Youko smiled. "Very well then, home is this way."

Kurama started to draw back from the movie like images of Youko's memories of Adia. There were many more besides the one he had just seen, but he could see those later, as dreams or movies like before when he had more time. He quickly scanned over the rest of the memories to get a better understanding of what had happened between Youko and Adia.

_"She was your mate."_ Kurama said quietly to Youko.

_"Later on."_ The fox agreed.

_"And she died shortly after Kuronue."_

_"Yes."_

Kurama thought about the chances that Adia had done the exact thing as Youko had and merged with a human body. The chances seemed small, but the possibility was still there.

_"Especially since I'm sure that Aria is Adia."_ Youko growled in Kurama's head, mad that he would not trust him when he said that Aria was a demon like himself.

_"I think we should go find Aria."_ Kurama thought as he slowly got out of bed, stretching his unused muscles.

_"That's the best idea you've had all day."_ Youko answered slightly exasperated as Kurama left the room to go find the girl.

* * *

Aria still felt funny. The clean clear feeling had spread throughout her body so that instead of feeling like she was in water, she was made of it. Aria breathed in deeply, enjoying the beautiful feeling. She closed her eyes and let the wind and sun touch what used to be her skin. She imagined that the pale dust cover she was usually shrouded with had turned into a clear slightly shimmering coat. She sighed dreamily and imagined the faint glow it gave off even in the afternoon sun just as the door opened and closed behind her with a loud bang. Aria lazily opened her eyes as Kurama sat down next to her on the steps. He was quiet long enough that Aria let her eyes close again and let the crystal clean feeling wash over her like waves on a beach.

"Aria?" Kurama finally spoke in a soft voice.

"Yes Kurama?" She said noticing with a slight surprise that her voice sounded different somehow, like she was listening to someone speaking from far away. It was strange considering she was the one talking. Aria shrugged it off, assuming it had something to do with the clean sensation she was currently enjoying.

"Have you ever heard of someone named Adia? Or maybe Nadia?"

"Sounds familiar," Aria said her voice sounding more distant than before, like she was listening to a dream of herself speak. "It reminds me of flowers, blue roses I think."

Although she could not see it, Kurama nodded. He was quiet as he thought, but Aria did not notice as she let her attention drift and waver between half finished thoughts. Strangely enough, she felt like a bit of her was spinning off from the whole like a little cloud. It made her feel lightheaded to try and think because it felt like the little cloud had taken the main portion of her thinking abilities with her.

Kurama started talking again. "Aria, you know that I am a fox spirit right?" Aria nodded even though Kurama had never told her what he really was before. "And you know that I am really close to three hundred years old?" Aria nodded again, her head bobbing languidly. "Did you know I never told you any of this?"

Aria was almost shocked out of her dream like stupor, but her little cloud self only laughed. Aria watched the little cloud start to take on a shape and form that she almost recognized. Slowly the cloud body moved to the very front of Aria's mind, struggling to maintain her shape as she did so.

"Aria," Kurama said when she did not say anything. "What is the earliest thing you can remember?"

The cloud whispered to Aria, asking for one last chance to speak. Aria agreed and the misty looking woman took control of Aria's body, letting Aria watch just behind her.

"I remember how the sun would show nearly once a year and the way the sky lit up in streaks of red and orange when it did." Adia opened her eyes and tilted her head back to stare up at Kurama. "I'm afraid that's not my earliest memory, but it is much more beautiful."

Kurama was stunned into momentary silence when he saw that Aria's eyes were not brown like they usually were. Instead they were a clear blue that reminded him of tide pools where he could see straight to the bottom without any trouble. Youko, using Kurama's temporary shock, slipped past him and took over.

"Adia," He said warmly, letting his affection show.

Adia did not bother to try and hide any of her feelings for the silver fox demon either. She reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck in a hug.

"I thought you died." He said softly after a moment of silence.

Adia let go of Youko's neck and slid back so she could see him better. He still looked like Kurama for the most part, but his eyes had changed from the more human emerald color to the amber that he had had in Makai. "I missed you." She said. "I'm glad that I get to see you again through my own eyes before we completely merge."

Youko's warm feeling suddenly disappeared. "Merge?" He asked suspiciously as Kurama listened from the back of his mind.

Adia nodded. "Yes, I don't know how it happened, but somehow I ended up here," she gestured the world around her, "after I 'died'. I vaguely remember someone telling me what to do, which is how I found Aria, but I don't think that I was really supposed to end up here in the first place. I think if I was I would have ended up more like you, sharing a human body with a more human personality. Instead I merged with Aria so that we turned into one person. I kept a fragment of my old personality apart so that I could hide my memories from her and see you without her help if I ever got the chance." She smiled sweetly. "And here you are." She said joyously and hugged Youko again.

Youko was a little less pleased. "Can't you stop it?" He asked pulling her back so he could look at her. "Can't you preserve yourself just for a while longer at the least?"

Adia shook her head. "No, but I'll still be here. Aria and I are the same person."

Youko did not believe her. "She's different from you."

"Only because I'm different from before. Just like you're different. Growing up with humans has had its affect on us Youko. I promise that I'm still me." Adia looked down at her human body. "Basically."

Youko snorted an almost laugh that made Adia feel better. Encouraged by his slight lift in attitude, Adia inched as close as space allowed and rested her head on his shoulder.

She did not stay still long, she could already feel herself molding together with the rest of her new self as the sun sank lower in the sky. She drew back from Youko far enough to see his face and kissed him soundly on the mouth.

"I love you." She said.

Youko smiled at her and moved to kiss her again. "I love you too."

The sun sank below the horizon, its oranges and yellows blending with the purple and blue of the night sky creating a thousand different colors. Just as the last piece of Adia's mind floated into its proper place, completing the change that made Aria who she was.

* * *

I'm sorry if that last bit was confusing, it made sense to me when I wrote it. Actually it still makes sense to me, but I usually know what I'm trying to say. So if anything doesn't make any sense for whatever reason, please let me know. Or if maybe you want to tell me what you think. Please? Pretty please?


	7. Chapter 7: Froslass

I know it's been forever, but here's chapter seven. I'll warn you now, but I have no idea when the next time I'll be able to update is because I'm moving into my dorm room tomorrow. I am going to continue with my stories though because I love them too much. Anyway, I gotta go pack so see you later and enjoy.

* * *

Chapter Seven: Froslass

Later that night, Aria woke in her own bed, half convinced that she had just dreamed up the whole Adia-Youko-Kurama thing, but then the memories of her life as Adia flooded her mind and she realized she had not been dreaming.

Quietly, Aria swung her feet out of bed and tiptoed to the door. She had to talk to Kurama. He probably was a little confused about this whole mate thing and Youko would not be happy that she had fully meshed with a normal girl. He was probably sulking somewhere in Kurama's head, driving him mad with his brooding attitude.

A small white furry ball tripped Aria half way to the room Kurama was sleeping in. Sweetheart meowed happily and rubbed up against Aria's face while the girl tried to figure out why she was face first on the carpet.

"Oh, Sweetheart!" She hissed shoving the small cat like pokemon away and climbing up off the floor. "Not now." Aria ignored the Skitty and continued on to the guest room, but nearly tripped again when her white puffball slinking in between her legs, never getting hurt herself.

"Dang it Sweetheart go awa-"

_"This way."_ A small voice cried.

Aria looked around her for someone else hiding in the shadows of her living room. No one else was there. But then who was talking? Or was she just imagining it? She looked down at Sweetheart in disbelief and shook her head. "No." She said simply and continued walking towards Kurama's room.

_"He's _this_ way."_ The voice came again and Aria looked down to where she thought the voice was coming from. All she saw was her Skitty who looked up at her and then pointed out the front door with her nose.

Aria was reminded of the morning after she had found Youko on the beach, beaten and bloodied. Hadn't someone spoken to her then too? Aria shook her head again, no, she was just imagining it.

Aria quietly left through the front door anyway, holding the door open for Sweetheart who followed her silently. Kurama's red hair shone like a fire in front of the black green trees. He stood straight and still in front of the forest appearing to meditate or sleep on his feet. Aria stopped a few yards away and waited for him to notice her.

A breeze blew off the ocean behind her house ruffling the trees and cooling Aria and Kurama off in the hot night air.

"Did you sleep well?" Kurama asked softly but did not move.

"Yes," Aria said slowly walking forward until she was side by side with the fox. "Are you still mad at me?"

Kurama finally moved and looked over at her. Aria saw that his eyes had changed back to the green they were before, meaning Youko had given Kurama control again and probably gone back to sulk.

Then she saw the small amber rings around his pupils that bled into the green. "Are you talking to yourself?" She asked not wanting to intrude on some private internal conversation.

"Yes," Kurama said. "But it was starting to degenerate into an argument instead." He fell silent and both he and Aria stared out at the sleeping forest. Aria looked at him out of the corner of her eye. Kurama looked like he wanted to say something else. He suddenly turned toward her and she turned her head, acting as if she had not been peeking at all.

"Would you like to take a walk with me?" He asked quickly and gestured towards her house where the sound of the waves could be heard. Aria nodded.

Apart from the waves, the ocean and the sand were quiet. Everything besides Aria and Kurama had fallen asleep hours ago. They did not say anything as they walked. Aria did not really know what to say so she mostly watched the sand and the water as it surged past her feet. She had a loose grip on the slippers she had bothered to put on before leaving the house in her right hand and they waved back and forth with each step, threatening to fall into the water or damp sand. They were almost to the smooth clump of rocks that broke out of the sand, halfway up the beach, when Kurama spoke, making Aria look up.

"I'll still don't quite understand," he said slowly, "how you can be Adia as well as Aria."

"Well," Aria said as she took a seat on one of the water worn rocks, Kurama sitting next to her. "I'm not sure how to explain it really." She leaned back, her arms wrapped around one of her legs pulling it to her chest as she thought. "I was always the same person," She said hesitantly not quite sure if she was right or not. "It's just somewhere along the line, I got a makeover, a new name, and I forgot about who I was before. I still acted like me because I was, am me." She wondered if that made any sense.

Kurama looked at her with a green gold gaze. "But you have changed." He said.

Aria did not flinch under his stare. "As much as you did. The last time I saw you I would've sworn on my parents' grave that you would despise humans until the day you died."

Kurama smiled. "In a way I did. I was "killed" by a bounty hunter shortly after you died." He flinched at the word. "I was able to run to the human world and found a body." He explained.

"And here you are." Aria said bracing both hands on the rock behind her so she could swing her legs back and forth.

"And here I am." He said looking out at the moonlit water. Aria watched his eyes rapidly change shades as he stared out at the ocean, showing his internal struggle with Youko. Maybe he had more to say, she thought to herself as she pulled her knees to her chest and rested her chin on them. Maybe they're just continuing their argument from before.

"Kurama?" Aria asked suddenly curious. "What were you and Youko arguing about before?" For some reason she was afraid to look at him. She was scared that it had something to do with her, that he did not care for her like he had before. Like she had said before, living among humans had changed both of them. She for one was more then willing to pick up where they had left off, she had not changed _that_ much. Kurama on the other hand had gone from the normal prejudice against humans to becoming one of them. Granted, that was one of the big things that Adia and Youko fought over, but what if other things had changed too?

"Well quite honestly we were arguing about what to do about us." Kurama said looking down at his feet.

"Us?" Aria asked her voice rising in pitch out of nervousness. She was terrified of what he was getting at.

"Yes," Kurama said nervous himself. "Youko wants to continue right where he and Adia where before she died." He said looking more then a little uncomfortable.

"Oh," Aria said, not really to live with anyone besides her mother despite having lived with the fox thief before. "And you would just rather…?" She asked, afraid he would say 'leave'.

"I think I would rather go slower then that." He said almost hesitantly.

It took a moment for Aria to understand that he was not leaving.

"Really?!" She nearly screamed in joy. "You want to stay with me? You're not going to leave?" She sat bolt upright on her rock and stared at Kurama with undisguised happiness.

Kurama laughed slightly at Aria's enthusiasm and took her hand. "Yes, I'll stay." He said and kissed the back of her hand. Then his smile disappeared. "But I will have to go back sometime. My friends will need my help if we're going to defeat Xryna."

That name struck a cord deep within Aria and she shivered. "Xryna?" She said trying to remember where she had heard that name before.

"Yes, we overheard that lord from Reizan's territory talking about him so he could impress someone or another. Remember?"

Aria nodded. "Yes, I remember now. He's the one that _everybody_ hated, yeah?"

Kurama nodded. "So, what do you want to do?"

Aria looked at him confusedly. "About Xryna?"

"No," Kurama sighed. "About us."

Oh, Aria thought. "Well, will you still be here later today?" She asked trying to think of somewhere nice.

"Probably, I hope so anyway." He said and then gave her a suspicious look. "Why?"

"I was wondering if maybe you wanted to go look around the town or something. You haven't seen the city yet and I thought if we went out today and saw the sights, maybe you'd like to eat some place too." She said smiling sheepishly.

Kurama smiled back at her happily. "That sounds very nice." He said helping her down off her rock. A yawn ruined Aria's happy smile and Kurama suggested they get some more sleep before talking again.

On their way back up the beach, a pair of frost blue eyes appeared out of the dark, watching the two walk away with their hands still clasped together.

* * *

As Kurama and Aria settled back into their separate rooms, Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Hiei were chasing one of Xryna's henchmen. Well, to be perfectly honest, Hiei was chasing one of Xryna's henchmen. Yusuke and the Oaf were busy trying to get around the wall of fire that the small black clad demon had thrown up behind him to prevent the detectives from following. Of course Hiei had just kept going as if the fire was not even there.

Surprisingly enough, the minion did not seem that amazed that Hiei was still coming after him. But then again because of his time under Reikai command, it was fairly common knowledge that Hiei was a fire demon. Maybe the minion had just expected it.

Hiei flew around another corner. He was getting tired of running, not because it was wearing him out, but because the small demon in front of him seemed to avoiding a fight.

"Coward." Hiei mocked as he pushed himself faster, trying to catch up with the unidentified demon and force him into a fight whether he wanted one or not.

But as Hiei followed the demon down another dark hallway, he realized that it would not be necessary for him to catch up. The demon had trapped itself with a dead end hall and was futilely searching for an escape.

"Hn," Hiei smirked. "Turn around."

The demon stopped scratching at the brick wall; finally realizing that the only way out was behind him. Slowly the cornered demon turned around. Hiei still did not know who or what kind of demon he was looking at since he was covered in black from head to toe, like a ninja from one of those stupid human movies. Even the creature's eyes were covered, but Hiei doubted that that would impede his opponent's vision.

Quickly so that anyone else would have missed the motion, Hiei drew his sword and tossed his black cloak out of the way. He stood waiting for his opponent to draw his own weapon.

Slowly, almost hesitantly as if he did not want to fight, the other demon drew his own sword, a plain katana not that different from Hiei's. With another confident smirk, Hiei charged his opponent.

The unknown demon did not move until the last moment but did not strike back. Hiei glared at the black clad figure for ruining the first real fight he had had since coming back to human world.

"Fight back!" He yelled attacking again only to cut the air as his opponent moved and made a break for the hall opening. Hiei was faster though and quickly blocked the demons path, his sword pointed at his throat.

"Hn," Hiei said in disapproval. "That's it? I'm disappointed. I thought something like Xryna would have better judgment than to use a weakling like you."

The demon's body stiffened, insulted. "I'm surprised you haven't asked to see my face Master Hiei." The demon said. Hiei's usually stoic face cracked, just for an instant, in confusion. He thought he had heard this voice before, but for the life of him he could not place whose it was.

Hiei hid his confusion as quickly as he could. "Why should I care what you look like?" He asked still trying to place the familiarity of his opponent's voice. "It doesn't change anything."

Even with the thick dark clothe covering his face, Hiei was sure that the demon was smiling in amusement. "Are you sure?" Then the small creature quickly pulled off the black mask, showing Hiei his face for the first time. Hiei stared not bothering to hide his shock as he realized four things almost simultaneously.

Firstly, she was a woman.

Secondly, stranger than the first, Hiei knew her.

Thirdly, he had called her a weakling.

Lastly he was in trouble.

* * *

The next day Aria woke up to sun light slanting through her bedroom window directly into her eyes. She rolled over, nearly knocking Sweetheart off the bed as she tried to snuggle deeper into the cozy blankets and dream of the day before where it had just been her and Kurama.

_"Come on Aria it's time to get up."_ A voice called.

"Alright mom I'm coming." Aria mumbled, not really knowing what she was saying as she reached over to pull the blankets higher over her head thinking of the nice lunch they had had at the diner near the park.

_"Aria, I said get up."_ The voice came again sounding sterner then before.

Aria groggily lifted her head up out of the comfy nest of covers and looked at the door. "I said I'm coming!" She called towards the brown wooden door loud enough for her mother to hear her on the other side.

Sweetheart mewled happily as Aria shoved the covers away from herself, lest she get to cozy again and fall back asleep. The wooden floor was cool on her bare feet as she slouched towards the door. She caught a look of herself in the mirror and instantly tried to forget the bedraggled thing she had seen looking back at her with its hair thrown in all different directions like a pile of brown fluff. _"This is what happens when you stay out too late with a cute guy."_ She thought as she shuffled out the door, her arms wrapped around her to try and keep off the sudden chill that had settled inside the house. Fall was coming sooner then last year Aria realized as she pulled a blanket off the couch and wrapped it around he shoulders.

"Mom?" She called when the older woman did not appear like usual. Aria poked her head in the kitchen, but everything was quiet. No Mom. "Mom?" She called louder this time as she wandered towards her mother's room. "Kurama? Is anybody here?" Aria did not find her mother in her room and Kurama was not in the guest room. Apart from herself and Sweetheart, the house was empty.

"How long did I sleep?" Aria asked herself quietly as she looked in the kitchen again, this time for a note or something that her mother might have left her to tell her what was going on. She saw the clock on the kitchen stove only said 8:30. So where was everybody?

A horrible thought entered Aria's head and she bolted outside to scan the woods for the demon she had seen standing over Kurama when he was wounded on the forest floor.

What if the demon had kidnapped Kurama or her mother? Or both? What if Kurama had gone after the monster who had taken her mother instead? What if they were hurt or unconscious or dying somewhere?

A rustle among the trees made Aria whirl around to see the fiend that had dared to do that to her family. But instead of the of a neon blonde man holding a lighting-like sword, a Froslass appeared out of the foliage.

Aria stopped in awe of the blue and white pokemon. The Froslass stared back at her with ice colored eyes that shone through the holes in the ice hard covering that surrounded her head and attached to her sleeve like arms. The feminine creature stared at Aria for a moment as if she was sizing her up.

Then she bowed.

Aria blinked confused by the Froslass's strange behavior. Pokemon did not _bow_ to people, even their masters, they just listened and did as they were told if given an order, but they never bowed.

The small creature straightened and looked over Aria's shoulder at something before turning around and gliding back into the forest on invisible feet.

Aria turned around to see what the Froslass had been looking at. Kurama strode purposely toward her, looking determined about something. With one last look to make sure that the Froslass had really gone, Aria went to meet him halfway.

"Hey Kurama, you're never going to believe what I just saw."

"Come with me." He said ignoring her as he grabbed her hand and started walking, rather quickly in Aria's opinion, back towards where ever he had just come from.

"Hey what's going on? Kurama, where are we going?" Aria asked as she tried to keep up with the swiftly walking fox.

"Your mother found something on the beach this morning and she wants you to try and help her help it." Kurama said leading Aria down the steep incline that led to the part of the beach that had numerous tide pools in its rocky surface. Before she had reached the sand Aria saw her mother crouched over a long greenish creature. At first she thought it was wrapped in seaweed, but then Aria saw the whiter dress looking part of the pokemon that lay soaked and limp around where her feet should have been if she had had any.

"Well I guess this is just that kind of morning." Aria muttered to herself amazed that in the past fifteen minutes had already had the strange feeling that yesterday had had, except this was more normal when your mother's specialty was sick or injured pokemon.

Aria knelt next to her mother and saw the poor thing was starting to lose consciousness. Her red eyes had narrowed down to slits as Mrs. Cullen took care of the large bite some sea creature had taken out of her side. Kurama, not knowing what else to do, crouched down on the Gardevoir's other side. Aria was not that sure what to do herself. It seemed her mother had everything under control for the moment.

"Kurama," Mrs. Cullen said when she had done as much as she could before getting to her small emergency room near the back of the house. "Do you think you could carry her to the back room please? Aria why don't you go ahead first and open the door for him, I'll be right behind you."

"Okay Mom." Aria said standing up and racing up the rocky incline while Kurama lifted the green creature and took an easier way up to Aria's house off the beach.

After she had gathered her things, Mrs. Cullen stood to follow her daughter and guest when a bright splash of water behind her caught her attention. She turned around just in time to catch a streak of blue that was lighter then the rest of the water. Mrs. Cullen had seen that blue before but only in a picture back in school when she was learning the different kinds of rare pokemon. Shaking her head, Mrs. Cullen realized she had more important things to deal with then speculation and half imagined pokemon sightings. Quickly she scrambled after her daughter up the steep slope that led home.

* * *

Ta-da. Hope it wasn't _too _corny. Too be honest I was a little embarrassed going back over my previous work. I haven't looked at this in quite a while actually and hopefully I fixed the worst parts. Anyway, I hope you liked it and please send me a review. That would be cool.


	8. Chapter 8: Manaphy

Hey, I think people are checking back to see if I've updated, which is encouraging, cause I take it to mean that _someone_ out there likes this story. I don't know what got in to me but suddenly I just wanted to write for Aria and I didn't want to stop (even for dinner) until I finished. Well fortunately I did it because I have a test in New Testament Friday and not only do I have to study but I have to write the essay for it outside of class. I kept spacing out while I was studying. Anyway, I hope you like the chapter, there's some action in this one.

* * *

Chapter Eight: Manaphy

"It bowed?" Kurama asked as he and Aria sat on the front porch while Aria's mother finished patching up the Gardevoir from that morning. Aria had just finished telling him about her encounter with the Froslass in the forest. She nodded confirming her own story.

"Yeah, it was strange. Pokemon don't bow at all. And this one just walked out of the forest, stared at me like she knew who I was, and then bowed as if she had just met a queen or something." Aria propped her head in her hand trying to puzzle out why the Froslass had acted so strangely.

"Do you think that the demon had anything to do with it?" She asked still staring out at the trees.

Kurama shook his head. "I doubt it." He said. "The demon probably thinks these creatures are beneath him, plus I don't think he would order one to bow to you unless he was mocking you."

"She didn't look like she was mocking me." Aria said, frustrated she could not figure out why the creature had bowed to her of all things. She sighed explosively throwing her hands up in the air trying to forget the whole thing since she could not understand what the Froslass had been doing. She tried to turn her attention to happier incidents, like yesterday, when she and Kurama had explored downtown Botany. It had been exciting and romantic in Aria's opinion, especially at the end when he had almost kissed her.

Almost being the key word there. Mrs. Cullen's mother sense must have been tingling because she called at that exact moment about more bandages for the back room or something similar. So far Kurama had not tried again and Aria was beginning to wonder if he would at all.

"Has Botan tried to contact you at all?" Aria asked trying to find something to talk about.

Kurama shook his head. "No," He said. "I don't know if it's because she can't get through or if it's because she has nothing to tell me. But I don't like being kept in the dark."

Aria smiled. "You've never liked being kept in the dark Kurama. You get all fidgety and cranky if people don't tell you anything."

Kurama looked over at her and Aria saw a little more gold seep into his eyes. "I remember you didn't especially like it either. Kuronue was always telling you to sit down and be quiet when that happened."

"I wasn't nearly as bad as you were." Aria grumped.

"No, but you were noisier about it." Kurama said smilingly to show he was teasing her.

The two fell quiet and Kurama took the chance to take Youko's place, sending the fox towards his usual spot in the back of his mind. Aria saw his eyes change from the corner of her eye but did not draw attention to it. As the silence stretched Aria began to feel a slight awkwardness settle in. She sighed, hoping that it would not cover them and make talking impossible but she did not think her wishing did any good.

Aria twisted her head so that her cheek was resting on her drawn up knees. She looked up at Kurama and saw that he did not know what to do either.

"What now?" She asked him anyway.

Kurama sighed and mirrored Aria's position with his head on his knees, facing her. "I don't know." He confessed. "We could try to find the demon and find out what he knows." Aria shivered in fright and he sighed. "We're going to have to look for him eventually."

"No we don't." Aria said quickly. "We can-we can," She started stuttering, scrambling for a viable excuse. "We can-"

"We can wait until he finds us?" Kurama put in pleasantly.

"No," Aria said indignantly. "I was going to say we could help Mom with the Gardevoir."

"The thing your mom found this morning?"

Aria laughed. "It's not a thing. It's called a Gardevoir. They're a type of psychic pokemon and they're incredibly loyal to their trainers. Sometimes," She said her voice growing more excited. "They can make a black hole."

Kurama laughed at her enthusiasm. "It's nice to know something like that is only a few yards away from us." Kurama said looking over his shoulder in a show of mock fear, making Aria laugh.

"Relax, it'll probably be so grateful to my mom that she'll stick to her like glue and do anything she asks."

"Right so as long as your mom doesn't want us flying into a black hole, we're safe."

Aria laughed again. "Yeah, pretty much."

Their laughter trailed off and Aria realized that Kurama was staring at her in a peculiar fashion.

Actually he was pretty much just staring at her, which was probably why it was so peculiar.

Aria felt her face turn red. "What?"

Kurama shook himself out of whatever stupor he had been trapped in. "Nothing." He said quickly. "Just, nothing."

"I think you've gotten shyer over time Kurama." Aria tried to joke away the remaining unease.

"You think so?" Kurama asked, sounding suddenly mischievous and playful. Not a good combination in a fox spirit.

Aria turned and gasped, surprised to see Kurama's face two inches from hers.

All words suddenly ran out of her head like water out of a cracked cup.

Before she could get forget that her eye color was blue and not a brilliant shade of emerald green she managed to remember how to speak. "Can I help you?" She whispered wondering if she should lean forward, just a little bit. A very tiny little bit.

And then he leaned back.

"Shyer hmm?" He said his eyes glinting.

Aria was still in shock.

Finally she exhaled and turned to say something to Kurama, who was still watching her with an amused expression, but a call interrupted her.

"Aria," Her mother yelled from somewhere near the back of the house. "Can you come here for a minute?"

Kurama was still smirking when she left him on the porch.

* * *

"Here's your dinner." Aria told Kurama sullenly later that evening as she basically dropped his food in front of him. Kurama and Aria's mother looked at her in surprise; Kurama because he had not thought that she would be so upset for so long and Mrs. Cullen because she had no idea what was going on. Aria had been in a bad mood ever since that morning and she had not spoken to anyone except in monosyllabic words all day.

The three ate dinner in an uncomfortable silence where Kurama and Mrs. Cullen kept looking over at Aria while she diligently ignored them. She finished quickly, put her dishes in the washer and went to her room without another word.

Mrs. Cullen watched her daughter stalk out of the kitchen and listened as she slammed the door behind her. Calmly the older woman looked over towards her guest. "Whatever you did I think you should apologize."

Kurama focused on his dinner rather than answering her.

* * *

"What do you mean he got away?!" Koenma cried through the communicator's tiny speaker.

Yusuke rolled his eyes. "I mean that the guy gave Hiei the slip. He. Is. Gone." He said carefully emphasizing each word to try and make Koenma understand what had happened.

To be honest Yusuke could not believe it either. Someone had gotten away from _Hiei_? It just was not possible. Literally, Yusuke did not think that it was possible.

Koenma sighed and put his head on his desk, nearly causing a landslide of paper to fall on his head. He caught it at the last minute though and then turned his attention back toward the communicator.

"Find him!" He shrieked. "Find out what he knows about Xryna and where he is! Ah-!"

The papers finally crashed onto Koenma's head and Yusuke snapped the mirror shut before the princeling's screaming got too annoying.

Yusuke stuffed the communication mirror into his back pocket before going out into the main room of the temple where the others were waiting. Everyone except Botan, who was probably helping to unbury Koenma from his mountain of papers, Kurama, who was still only Koenma knew where (he wouldn't tell them exactly where he was now), and Hiei, who had just decided not to show up.

"Where the heck is Hiei anyway?" Yusuke asked as he sat on the floor next to Keiko.

"How should I know?" Kuwabara asked from across the room near Yukina. "I haven't seen him since he went after that other guy that attacked us."

"He was just outside before you arrived." The tiny Ice Maiden spoke up.

"Well he isn't here now." Yusuke grumbled. He had wanted to talk to Hiei about the guy he chased. He had not even told them what the demon looked like besides the fact that he was wearing black and had a sword. Big deal. Hiei wore black and had a sword. Maybe he was fighting a mirror.

"Never mind," Genkai told him in her raspy voice as she lowered her tea cup. "What did Koenma say?"

Yusuke rolled his eyes again and leaned back on his hands. "He said we need to find the guy and get him to tell us what he knows about Xry-, I mean _Him_." Yusuke thought that all this stupid _him_ stuff was ridiculous. What power could a name have? It was just a word, even if it was used to call a very old and freakishly strong demon.

An empty tea cup flew out of nowhere and hit Yusuke in the side of the head.

"What was that for?!" Yusuke yelled at his ancient teacher.

"You should take this more seriously dimwit. It took the combined forces of both the Spirit World and Makai to defeat him the first time and they could only seal him away in some long lost citadel."

"Yeah, and most of them died." Kuwabara muttered resting his head on his fist.

"What?" Yusuke asked giving the other man a strange look. "What do you know about this guy?"

"I've been looking up stuff about him in the library. I figured that since Kurama isn't here someone better do it and since you obviously weren't going to do it-"

"Shut up." Yusuke whined, tired of people ganging up on him.

"What did you find Kazuma?" Yukina asked softly, trying to deflect the fight she could feel brewing.

Kuwabara, glad for the chance to show off to Yukina, instantly got a goofy smile on his smile on his face. "Well," He said with too much bravado, although Yukina did not notice. "I found this one book in Koenma's library that's really helpful – the others weren't helpful at all – and it says that that guy had these headquarters somewhere in Makai, nowhere ever knew where, and he basically kept everybody under his thumb until they found a way to lock him in some special kind of rock in his castle."

Yukina looked worried. "How did they find the castle if no one knew where it was?" She asked.

"One of _his_ servants spilled the secret, but he died in the battle so we don't know where the place is. There are a couple descriptions of the surroundings from a couple people who attacked the place, but they were busy thinking of how to defeat Xryna rather then the pretty scenery."

"Well what did those say?" Keiko spoke for the first time. "Maybe there's a special landmark or a marker we can look for."

"Naw," Kuwabara said. "Most of them just say that the castle was surrounded by trees or something like that, but I'll keep looking."

Keiko nodded, a worried look on her face whenever she thought her friends, Yusuke especially, was going to get into potentially fatal situations.

"Let Botan or the toddler sift through the books; we need to find that minion. It'll be faster to get information from him than from that stupid library."

Genkai rolled her eyes and sighed in frustration as Kuwabara rose to the bait and started yelling at Yusuke. She missed the calm and quiet Kurama and Hiei. Or at least she missed the way they could get the other two to be quiet quickly.

"Shut up the both of you before I throw you in the pond." Genkai snapped, the arguing finally pounding her last nerve into dust.

Both boys instantly shut up.

Okay, so she could make them quiet too, but she was old, and they were too irritating.

* * *

Deep in one of the many wild forests of Makai, three creatures listened to the Spirit Detectives continue to argue as soon as the old lady left. The light from the picture was the only light in the old and decaying room, but even that seemed to waver a few inches from the hunk of crystal that projected it before it dissipated and was sucked up by the ancient stone that sat in the middle of the room as if some giant had thrown it there in a haste to get rid of it.

In fact, the whole room looked as if the grand, almost royal, family that must have lived there had left in a great hurry. In most of the other rooms, chairs were turned over, water glasses and open books sat abandoned, and in the largest bedroom a lady's once fine dress was laid out on her now moldy and disintegrating bed cover, ready for her to put on.

And then there were other signs.

Dark stains splattered on the walls smeared down to lead to the bones of creatures whose names had been lost or forgotten long before they had planned. Their clothes were now tatters and dust surrounding their thin frames.

But over the millennia the decaying citadel had stood undisturbed by all except the wind and the rain, and the shadows that had been trapped there for so long had almost given up hope.

And then one day…

One day, a young man with lightening bright hair stumbled upon the ancient ruins. He explored what he could and saw the bones and dust and stains on the walls. He saw the ancient black rock tossed carelessly in the middle of the grand, high room.

And he heard a deep vibrating voice that shook his bones, whisper to him, promising him everything that he could ever want and more. The man did not believe the voice, but the seductive tone and alluring feeling of how the rock's dark power imbedded into every stone of the secret castle made him realize-

If he had this power, he could have anything.

Of course after a short time, he had realized that it would not be as easy as he had first though. Xryna was not a force to be taken lightly. Arashi truly feared the ancient force trapped within the other worldly rock, since he could kill him with no more than a stray thought. That was why as the viewing crystal grew dim, Arashi stood, waiting patiently, like any good servant, for his master to speak.

"_Arashi..._" The deep surreal voice seemed to slither out of the rock. Arashi had learned a long time ago to suppress the shivers that unconsciously ran across his skin. It did not look good to be afraid of something you wanted to dominate. But out of the corner of his eye he saw the phoenix that his master kept around for errands shudder at his ghosting voice.

"_Tell the girl she has a week. Let's see what our little Bluebell can do._"

Arashi bowed, not as deep as others who feared him but enough to show his deference for Xryna's ability. He did not mind going back to that pretty and pastel world so long as he was allowed to cause some kind of havoc. Testing the little _bluebell_ would lift his spirits, if nothing else.

"_Hikari,_" Xryna whispered mischievously, wanting to push the demoness to her breaking point. She had a fiery personality, and was beyond insulted by the fact that she was being forced to work as an errand-girl. But Xryna had her captured her young daughter along with her and he kept her tribe under constant watch. The lady of the phoenixes had no choice. "_Hikari my little fire-bird, I need you to do something for me my sweet._" Hikari shuddered again, but this time Arashi figured that it was because the phoenix was subduing the urge to uselessly blast the ancient stone Xryna was trapped in and turn it into glass. "_You need to see what they're planning to do to us my fire-bird. I'm sure the two kings each have their plans by now. You have five days to discover their plans or I'll have to assume that you've run away from me darling and I'd hate to think of what would happen to little Kisara if you did._"

Hikari dipped her head in acknowledgement but did not say anything before she quickly left the room. The closing door echoed around the empty space, but no one listened.

"_Go Arashi…_" Xryna said his voice fading as he dismissed his only loyal servant.

Arashi left, taking a different way than Hikari, who had probably left through some window to fly off like some savage animal. Instead, he wound his way through the old and crumbling corridors to a back room that had no lights of any sorts. The single large twisting rip that led to the Bluebell's pastel world glimmered with its own strange half light, although Arashi had stopped noticing things like that long ago and without hesitating he walked through the rip into leave filtered sunshine.

* * *

As the sun began to rise above the water's edge, sending a brilliant array of reds, oranges, and yellows scattering across the undulating waves, Aria sulked. She sat at the edge of the water, arms wrapped around her knees as she stared unseeing out into the sun painted water.

She still did not understand. Why hadn't Kurama kissed her yesterday? Didn't he want to? Was he not interested? He said he still liked her, but what if he didn't? What if they had changed too much?

Aria put her head down and sighed in frustration. Boys and relationships were difficult, especially when someone put them together.

_"Phi hello phi girl."_

Aria looked up wondering where the tiny voice had come from. But as she listened to the waves crash relentlessly against the sand and the different bird-like pokemon cried in the trees, she dismissed the vague noise as imaginary and put her head back down on her arms.

_"Phi girl over here."_

Aria looked up again and this time scanned the forest as well as the ocean, but she was still alone.

_"No-no phi, over here."_

The voice was close by now and Aria turned to the craggy rocks that sometimes had tide pools swimming in the spaces between them. Carefully Aria crawled across the fine sand and peered down at the closest swirling pool.

And then fell back on her butt as a flurry of blue and red sprang up splashing water all over the frightened girl.

Aria screamed, afraid that the Froslass had come back under some order from the neon blonde man that had tried to kill Kurama and threw up her arms to protect her face.

But all that fell on her was water.

_"Phi phi silly girl. I don't bite. I don't have teeth."_

Hesitantly, Aria peeked through her arms and when she did not see anything big with a plethora of fangs standing over her she slowly lowered her arms to look at what she was speaking with.

The small smiling Manaphy waving happily at her was close to the last thing she ever expected to see talking to her.

_"Hi phi phi!"_ The little creature said.

Aria distantly felt her mouth drop open. The Manaphy's mouth had not moved when he (she? Aria could not tell) had spoken to her.

"This can't be happening." She finally whispered.

The small little creature cocked its head to the side and gave her a confused look. _"Why?"_

"Because it's impossible." Aria stammered forgetting for the moment that she was responding to what she was half convinced was a hallucination.

The Manaphy smiled again and jumped up and down like a happy child. Laughter burbled out of its mouth and it clapped its fingerless arms together.

"What's so funny?" Aria demanded.

_"You're a funny flower-girl."_ The pokemon giggled again before leaping back into the water.

Aria quickly stood up and ran to the waters edge, ditching her sandals before she hit the surf. She scoured the salty water, kicking up sand and obscuring the already thick water as she walked deeper into the chill water.

The water blue pokemon popped out of the water a few feet from Aria with a cheerful wave. _"Phi! Over here. This way."_ With another cheery "phi" the Manaphy dived back under water.

Aria waded after the swift creature, skimming the water with her fingers to see if the Manaphy was just below the surface of the sandy water. But instead of running into the small pokemon, the Manaphy burst out of the water again ahead of her crying, _"Catch me if you can!"_

Aria continued to chase the happy pokemon in the twisted game of tag until her legs began to ache halfway up the beach. Finally she stopped and leaned her hands on her knees as she tried to catch her breath. Her pant legs were soaked from the knees down and her feet were starting to feel prickly with the cold. Manaphy popped out of the water at its regular few feet away and looked back at Aria.

_"Aren't you going to get me?"_ The Manaphy asked.

Aria shook her head. "No, no I'm too tired."

The curious creature swam close enough so that she could look up into Aria's face. _"Why?"_ It asked as it uttered a tiny phi.

Aria coughed a laugh. "Because I don't usually run like that," she said, "just like you don't usually talk."

The Manaphy cocked its head again. _"But I always talk like this."_ It said sounding like a child asking why she could not go outside. _"You're the ones that don't usually listen to me."_

Aria stared at the rare creature, her amazement increasing.

"Are you saying that _I'm_ the one that's really talking to _you_?" She asked speaking slowly as if that would help her figure out what was happening to her.

The Manaphy smiled again, regaining its happy manner as it nodded a yes to her and let out a loud, "Phi!"

Aria thought her heart must have stopped. She knew her thoughts all came to a screeching halt, except one.

_This isn't possible. This just isn't possible._

Aria was so lost in her thoughts, well, thought really, that she did not notice that the Manaphy had frozen in fright at the sight of something behind her on the beach. Then with a terrified cry the childlike creature dove beneath the ocean's surface and swam away as quickly as it could.

Aria snapped out of her stupor when water sprinkled onto her face and head. She looked around, searching for the rare water pokemon.

"Manaphy?" Aria called. "Hello?" The little creature did not resurface.

"What's the matter Aria?" A low pitched unfamiliar voice suddenly appeared behind her. "Did you lose your friend?"

Aria spun around, splashing water everywhere, hoping against common sense that Kurama was the one standing behind her or someone from school or town.

But as she managed to stop herself from falling over, Aria saw in horror that the unfamiliar voice had a frighteningly familiar face. Ever since she had seen his sharp face almost three days ago as he stood over Kurama's battered form, she had been terrified of its return.

This situation was probably why.

"Good morning Aria."

Aria did not know whether to try and run or just stand there screaming for help like some stupid damsel in distress. Of course she was a damsel, so to speak, and she was distressed, but that was not reason to start screaming.

The man stepped forward and Aria quickly rethought about screaming.

"What's the matter Aria?" The man asked conversationally as he smiled, showing teeth so white they looked like someone had supercharged them with electricity. In fact, his whole body looked electric, from her almost glowing teeth to his lighting colored hair. His eyes, even though they were a sable shade of brown, had a charge of their own, which kept Aria rooted to the ocean floor. The color kind of reminded her of the tree in the forest that had been struck by lightening a few years ago, its limbs and trunk all black and burnt and its roots withered and surrounded by little flakes of ash.

"I'm supposed to be giving you a message from my master," The man went on pleasantly as if he was talking about something normal. Heck, maybe he was. Maybe this was normal for minions of frighteningly powerful, universe crushing, older than dirt demons that had been trapped by mortal enemies.

"But," he continued, "I think that I would like to try something else first."

As he spoke a bright, crackling, yellow-white light begin to grow in the palm of his hand. First it was barely the size of a dime, but then it quickly grew to a quarter, the bottom of her mom's favorite coffee cup, a half blown balloon.

"Get ready," The man said as the snapping, crackling light grew even bigger.

_"Run!"_ A small voice called behind Aria, but she could not bring herself to look away from the man or his light.

"Get set." He spoke again in the same agreeable way as before. Aria managed to blink as she felt the ocean start to swirl around her unpleasantly. She should run. She should hide. She should do something.

"Run."

_"Run!"_

Both the man and the Manaphy spoke at the same time, but Aria could not force her body into action and instead stood there stupidly as the demon threw the writhing light at her.

All Aria could do was throw her hands up in front of her face.

Sweet sugar she was such a damsel.

* * *

There was an ear splitting clap of thunder as the ball of lightning struck, making Aria flinch, her old fear of storms managing to squelch the fear of death just for a moment.

And then there was nothing.

Slowly, her ears still ringing from the thunder, Aria lowered her arms. The man was standing there, looking peeved that she was still in one un-charred piece. Aria was amazed herself that she was still able to breathe without any kind of pain.

Looking down as she inspected her body, she realized with a start that she the sandy ocean floor and the many shells that littered the bottom and usually cut her feet when she forgot her swim shoes in the summer. The water had been pulled back away from her feet and legs in an almost perfect circle, keeping her safe from the lightning.

"PHIIIII!"

Aria's head shot up at the Manaphy's pained cry. The little creature was four feet away from her held up in midair by a thick stream of water it had called up. But the man had used the water to direct his lightning up to Manaphy. He did not smile like Aria thought he would. He merely stared at the wailing creature as if it were an annoyance and beneath his notice even more than a worm crawling on the sidewalk.

Finally the Manaphy gave up and let the water holding it up fell back into the ocean, the unconscious creature following it. Water swirled back around Aria's legs too, rushing into the void the Manaphy had created.

Aria rushed forward and grabbed the pokemon out of the water before it had a chance to drown. She was not quite sure if that was possible for a water pokemon, even if they were unconscious, but she was too panicked to think about that as she hauled the small blue creature out of the salty water. It was still breathing, but Aria still wanted to get it to her mom as soon as she could.

She looked up, remembering the reason why the Manaphy needed help in the first place. The man watched her with revulsion, showing his distaste for the child-like Manaphy plainly.

He also had another lightning ball in his hand.

"Let's get this over with shall we?" He said, his opinion of the girl going down every time she breathed.

Aria, wet and sopping, stared in wide eyed undisguised fear as the man began to hurl the wad of fatal electricity straight at her torso, so it would stop her internal organs like a penny in a finely tuned machine.

Fear can let a person do things that otherwise would be impossible, like eighty year old woman lifting cars off of their husbands or people throwing televisions, stuff like that.

In this case, Aria's fear drop kicked an iron door in her head that had been sealed and bolted so many times it looked more like an array of chains and irons than a door.

As the contents lying in wait behind the door swept into Aria's conscious mind, Aria realized that she was standing on dry land again.

And that the man was cursing her behind a curtain of rippling water that was arched over her like a bubble. The water sparked with its new electrical charge, but it soon faded as the electricity dissipated into the vast ocean.

"Very good little girl." The man spat angrily. "But tricks like that won't help you defeat my master and you know it. You have a week before he razes this foul world and its simpering inhabitants to the ground. I suggest you run away before then." Then he was gone, disappearing through the dense trees and out of sight.

Aria was too disturbed by her two near death experiences to comprehend what the lightning man had just said. She tried to distract herself by attempting to get out of her new protective bubble, but in the end she just had to run through the inch of vertical water, getting even wetter than she already was. In a daze she ran home, trying not to jostle the injured Manaphy in her arms.

Fortunately, Mrs. Cullen was sitting on the front porch waiting for her irritated daughter to come home. She was hoping to talk to her about whatever it was that had happened between her and Kurama or at least give her some advice so they could fix their friendship. But when she saw Aria sprinting across the yard, sopping wet and terrified, she called for Kurama to get a towel and jogged to her daughter.

"Aria! Aria, what happened?" She asked grabbing the girl's shoulders trying to get her to look at her.

"F-fell," she stammered, her teeth starting to shake from the unusually chill weather. "Fou-found i-it in the w-wa-water."

"Okay," Aria's mother said soothingly, thinking that the Manaphy's terrible state had her daughter upset. Usually she was not so easily shaken as this. Maybe her fight with Kurama was more serious than she had thought. "It's okay I've got her." Mrs. Cullen said taking the little creature from her as Kurama appeared with the towels. He handed Mrs. Cullen a smaller one before wrapping a bath towel around Aria's shoulders. "Sit her down." She told him as she swaddled the Manaphy and walked toward the house.

Kurama nodded and put an arm around Aria and led her across the grassy lawn. She clung to his shirt with one hand, keeping the towel in place with the other. "He-e's b-back." She told him, tears starting to leak down her face, mixing with the ocean water.

"Who's back?" Kurama asked as he pulled down Aria next to him on the topmost porch step.

"T-that m-m-man," she stuttered fearfully, "tha-at e-elec-lectric man."

Kurama still did not understand. "What electric man Aria? Who is he?"

_"He is Arashi, servant to Xryna."_

Aria shrieked and jumped at the sudden voice, her head jerking up to see who was in her yard. Kurama, wondering why Aria had screamed like that, followed her gaze.

The Froslass that had bowed to Aria the other day was standing calmly in her front yard, gazing solemnly up at her and Kurama.

Aria was quiet for a moment as she shook and sobbed. "Wh-who are y-you?" She asked, her voice a little steadier, not sure she wanted to know the answer. "And what do you know about this?"

_"I am called __Frost__, and I have been sent by my Lords Kyogre and Suicane to help you. You are the Lady Alastrina, servant to my king, Arceus. You are the also the only that has enough power to break Xryna."_

The Froslass's declaration was too much for Aria to handle. There was a roaring in her ears as black spots began to cloud her vision and she collapsed backwards in a faint. Kurama, who had not heard the Froslass say anything and wondered why Aria was staring terrified at the creature, caught her before she hit the porch deck. He looked over at the pokemon for a moment, but when it made no move to attack, he carefully picked Aria up and carried her into the house.

* * *

The end. Of this chapter at least. As a real ending its terrible, but anyway. I almost had my own fainting spell this week, it wasn't pleasant. I'm rambling. Actually I think I'm trying to avoid studying. Darn it!

Please review person out there who keeps checking back to read about Aria. Thank you! Bye.


	9. Chapter 9: Frost

I looked and saw that it's been a little over a year since I've posted.

Wow.

I hope there are still people out there who read this. I'm working on it. However slow it is. Hope you enjoy.

*

The Blue Rose: The Story of Aria

Chapter Nine: Frost

A blazing bird rocketed through the peculiar trees avoiding the branches that mangled the straight and narrow path at a breakneck speed that any other airborne creature would not have dared mimic. The red-gold phoenix eventually slowed to a more manageable pace swooping to the edge of the forest that encased Xryna's forgotten castle. After cooling the flames that surrounded her feathered body, the phoenix alighted gently on a thick limb and watched with her jewel bright eyes as the heavy darkness that lay over Makai was lifted by the coin sized ball that rose into the sky, making it violet for once instead of black.

Lady Hikari Fireflight watched as the Makai sun showed his glowing face after almost a year and a half of hiding in whatever dark secret space he seemed to prefer. As the yellow sphere of fire finally let go of the horizon line, Hikari opened her beak and began a song that echoed hauntingly across the barren landscape that now spread before her. She crooned and trilled, twittered and warbled until the sun hid his face again behind the thin curtain of clouds, muting his light and sending Makai into shadow once again.

Hikari tightened her shining wings against her body, the unbearable loneliness returning as the skimpy clouds veiled the small sun. Singing alone, without the harmonious choir of her flock and family surrounding her, was awful enough, but usually the sun was out and shining for a few hours if not a few days. Xryna must have used his strengthened powers to hide the bright source of light that brought him discomfort and misery.

When the misty clouds did not dissipate like normal clouds, Hikari spread her wings and lightly leaped from the branch, letting the wind catch her light, thin body as she pushed herself upward and across the desolated field that lay spread out beneath her.

Soaring through the unending darkness usually managed to lift Hikari's spirits, but with the short, tantalizing appearance of the sun and having to leave Kisara alone in that desolate fortress to go spy on some princling and his rehired cohorts wore her nerves down to sheer.

Still, if there was a golden feather in this situation it was that she would be able to tell her On-dui what her _master_ was doing. With that lightning struck idiot gone and Xryna too self assured in his dominance over her, Hikari would be able to let him know what to expect from Xryna and Arashi. Some might call it double crossing, but Hikari did not agree; not when she never had any loyalty to Xryna in the first place. The phoenix put on another burst of speed, turning into a flash of reddish-gold. She only had five days and nearly three would be eaten up with traveling. She had to hurry if she wanted to speak with her On-dui and find out what the Spirit Prince was doing in a single day.

*******

The first thing Aria realized when she regained a weak form of consciousness was that her head felt like an egg that had just been cracked against the side of the frying pan. She twisted in her bed, tangling the sheets around herself even more as she tried to find a way to relieve the pain.

"Aria?" A concerned and familiar voice spoke up next to her, but Aria did not open her eyes to remind herself who it was. She still tried to ask them for something to help her head even if she did not immediately remember the person's name, but instead of words all she heard was a low moan. That was the last time Aria tried to talk.

"Aria?" A different voice spoke now. "Sweetheart are you okay?"

Aria tried nodding her head, still not quite ready to talk. Her mother must have seen her because a cool hand reached out and brushed her somewhat sweaty hair from her forehead. "You're a little warm dear. Maybe you're coming down with something."

Something gurgled out of Aria's throat when she tried to answer. Her mother only stroked her head again and told her to take it easy the rest of the day.

Kurama waited until Aria's mother left before moving from the little wooden chair he had spent most of the morning in. "Aria?" He whispered. "Aria what happened?"

"Mm head hurts." She gargled still not opening her eyes.

"Is that all?" Kurama asked reaching out and pushing Aria's hair out of her eyes like her mother had done. "You aren't hurt?"

"No." Aria groaned, not really sure if anything else hurt or not. "Why? What happened?" She asked wondering why Kurama had asked.

"Why don't you tell me? You came home this morning soaking wet holding an injured pokemon and talking about an electric man."

Aria's eyes opened with her returning memory. She would have shot to a sitting position, but she wasn't sure how well her body would like that.

"The electric man!" She said forcefully turning more to her side so she could look at Kurama. "It was that man with dyed hair who was going to kill you after you fell. He shot lightening at me and Manaphy saved me and then water shot up in front of me and I got all wet!"

Kurama began to wonder if Aria had truly woken up. "What?" He asked not sure he really wanted to know.

"After you tried to leave and fell instead, the guy I saw standing over you was the electric man who attacked me on the beach. He was going to zap me with lightening but the Manaphy jumped in the way and got hurt instead. Then he shot me again but someone else must have been around. Or else the ocean just decided to defy gravity on its own."

By this time Kurama was thoroughly confused. "What do you mean the ocean defied gravity? How is that even possible?"

Aria shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. But if a wall of water hadn't just sprung up out of no where then I'd be fish food."

Kurama didn't speak for a moment, trying to think about what this meant. "Did you see anyone else besides the man that attacked you? Maybe someone in the trees who could have saved you?"

Aria thought hard, trying to remember if she had seen anything else besides trees in the forest. She shook her head. "I don't think so. But I wasn't really thinking about the trees so much as the jagged bolts of lightening he was throwing at me."

Kurama nodded. "What if you were the one that manipulated the water?"

Aria thought about that. It was true that when she had lived in demon world as Adia she had been able to control water, but while she remembered how to use her power, she was a bit out of practice. She hadn't bent water in over seventeen years. Anyone would be more then a little rusty.

"Maybe." She finally admitted. "But it's been so long I can't tell if I was the one in control or not. I was so afraid of getting zapped I couldn't think of anything. Hey can you hand me that blanket over there?" She said pointing to her favorite blanket thrown over her chair by her desk.

Kurama leaned back and grabbed the soft piece of fabric for her. As Aria wrapped the brightly colored blanket around her shoulders he took a guess as too why she was cold.

"Do you remember what happened after you escaped?"

Aria's eyebrows came together in concentration. She thought for a moment before answering. "I remember walking through the wall of water because I couldn't figure out how it turned off. I came back home, where I found you and Mom and she took the Manaphy and then," her hand came up to her forehead as if it would help her think, "and then I think I must have passed out because I remember a Froslass showing up and speaking to me about lords and ladies."

Now that was interesting. "It spoke to you? The Froslass? Was it the same one as before?" Kurama asked.

"I don't know. I guess so. Most pokemon don't have distinguishing features Kurama. That wasn't real was it? That couldn't have been real." But other memories presented themselves from before the lighting man had attacked. She had noticed the Manaphy because she had heard something. And then when she had seen the rare creature she had felt sure that it was the one speaking to her.

"I don't know if it was speaking to you, but a Froslass did show up shortly after you came back. It's waiting outside on the porch, for you I presume."

Aria pointed speechlessly outside the window. Kurama just nodded. With a sudden burst of energy, Aria threw back her covers, hopped out of bed and nearly fell over as a wave of dizziness washed over her. Kurama kept her from hitting the floor but couldn't stop her from zigzagging her way out of her room towards the front porch where the pale blue creature still waited.

It floated at least three inches off the wooden porch, icy mist billowing out from the spot where its toes should have been. Aria started shivering the moment the screen door closed behind her with a sharp clang. She looked down to see her mom had changed her out of her wet clothes into one of the overly large t-shirts Aria usually wore during lazy days when she had nothing better to do then sit around the house and read her favorite book again. It fell too her knees, but had turned thin and flexible with severe use. No wonder she felt so cold.

The pale blue and white creature looked up and Aria fought the urge to swallow. The Froslass stared at her with piercing, intelligent pale blue eyes, like the color of shadow on snow. It was eerie. Aria wasn't sure if the goose bumps were caused by the cold or by the realization that this was not just your everyday average pokemon that listened to its trainer and let it be called back into a pokeball. This one was something else entirely.

"I-its Frost right?" Aria asked, not sure what else to say.

The Froslass nodded, a delicate motion. _"I am pleased to see you are feeling better Lady Alastrina."_ A cool, feminine voice spoke directly into Aria's mind.

Aria could almost feel her mind click into autopilot as the impossibility of the situation overload her brain. "That's not my name." She said without any thought, still reeling from the fact that none of her dream had actually been a dream.

The Froslass did not deign that with a reply and simply watched her with her intelligent eyes.

A hand appeared on her shoulder and Aria jumped. She hadn't realized that Kurama had followed her. "Is it speaking to you?" He asked sounding more guarded then he had when they were speaking before.

Aria nodded, beginning to feel a little confused. "Yeah, didn't you hear it?"

Kurama shook his head.

Aria tried to think if the electric man had given any sign of hearing the Manaphy before he had tried to fry her, but she couldn't think of any. Then again, the little creature hadn't said much after he had stepped out of the trees and attacked her. Great, so now there was a chance she could just be crazy too.

"Why can't anyone else hear you?" Aria asked the floating creature somewhat hesitantly. Silently she wondered which would be worse, its continued silence or an answer.

_"You are a very special young lady Aria."_ It said.

She waited but it didn't expand on that thought.

"That's it? Seriously? 'You are a very special young lady'? Nothing else like maybe, oh, 'they don't have the power'. Or heck, 'I was only talking to you'? Just 'you are a very special young lady'?"

The Froslass nodded.

Aria shoved her frozen fingers through her hair and walked in a circle, mostly in frustration but also because her feet felt like ice.

"If I ask you what you're doing here will you give me a real answer or just tell me that it's because I'm so 'special'?" She bit sarcastically. This explained everything. Why pokemon were talking to her, why some guy with neon hair had tried to electrocute her, and why the world was going to end in a week. It was all because she was _special_.

_"Ask me and find out."_ Frost answered.

Aria felt her teeth grind together and her cheeks burn in anger. This was ridiculous. "Fine," she spat, "what are you doing here?"

_"As I said before, I have been sent here by my lords Kyogre and Suicane to help you regain control over water. You are the only one now who can break Xryna but you will have to remember every scrap of power from your past life if you want to have any hope of defeating him and living to tell about it."_

Aria's anger abated as she listened to the Froslass's words and her fierce tone. "What are you talking about?" She asked, a heavy feeling beginning to settle in her stomach.

Pale blue eyes bored into her as if that alone could force her to understand. _"Xryna is a powerful creature from a long forgotten age. It took monumental power to seal him the first time, from every race of being that exists in his world,"_ she pointed at Kurama who still stood behind Aria, watching quietly but intently, _"however even with all their strength combined they could not break him. When Arceus, my king, saw that Xryna's darkness was only temporarily imprisoned, he gave you the power to defeat Xryna. Anyone else who goes up against him will fall, either into his service or in death."_

Aria felt her heart speed up and her breath come faster as Frost's message sunk in. She had to defeat Xryna? _She_ had to defeat _Xryna_?! Without any help? If Xryna could get rid of his opponents as easily as Frost was implying then maybe it would be safer for them if they didn't help her but still, she had to do this all by herself?

Kurama must have seen the borderline panicked expression growing on her face. He reached out to her again, feeling how cold she was through her long shirt. "Aria, what is it saying?"

Aria reached up to grab his hand without a second thought and swallowed hard, trying to get passed the lump that had suddenly appeared in her throat. "She says that because of a power her King Arceus gave me I'm the only one who can defeat Xryna in the long run. That's about it, right?"

The Froslass nodded once.

Kurama was silent as he thought for a moment. "So this Arceus gave you a new power that will destroy Xryna?"

Aria looked over at the small blue and white creature floating barely a yard away from them, listening to it he assumed.

"No," she answered, still gazing at the Froslass. "She says I've always had the power, Arceus gave it to me when I was very small, and it's mixed in with my natural water abilities. She's offering to help me relearn how to use it."

Kurama waited for her to say anything else, but she remained silent, staring worriedly at the space between her and the Froslass.

When several minutes had passed and she still stared into space, Kurama squeezed the hand he still held. "Aria?" He asked. "Aria are you alright?"

With difficulty, Aria dragged her eyes away from the hole they were boring into the space between her and the pokemon and looked at Kurama. "This just isn't possible." She said her eyes turning red. "I can't do this by myself."

Kurama met her frightened gaze. "You won't have to. Even if no one else does, which I highly doubt, I'll stay with you."

"And if Xryna kills you? Or what if I've just lost my mind and that's why I'm hearing voices and you're not?" She asked her eyes beginning to tear.

She was terrified Kurama saw, most likely over a thousand different tiny things that didn't make sense except inside her head besides the obvious problems at hand. She had done it before, first frightening herself over one thing before jumping to ten thousand other things.

"Aria," Kurama said softly, hoping to calm her. "You're not crazy. I may not be able to hear it, but the Froslass does answer you. It listens and it's nodded at you at least three times. It understands what you say."

Aria took a deep breath, realizing that he was right. "Okay, but what about-"

"We've already discussed that," Kurama interrupted her. "The most likely reason that Xryna keeps sending the electric man-"

"Arashi."

Kurama didn't question how she knew the man's name. "Most likely he keeps sending Arashi because he isn't powerful enough yet to reach the distance between the demon world and this one. That's why we can say his name here. He can't stretch himself this far."

Aria breathed in deeply, letting go of another worry.

"Better?" Kurama asked when she didn't say anything else right away.

"A little." She admitted.

"But?"  
"But this is still impossible!" She cried.

_"So are you and yet here you are."_ Aria turned around when the Froslass spoke again. _"Now are you going to accept my help or not?"_

Aria stared at the beautiful blue and white creature for a long moment, trying to think past her shock. The small rational part of her mind that was still functioning knew that she wouldn't be able to do this by herself; she was going to need help.

Swallowing down that lump in her throat again, Aria nodded. "Yeah, I'll take your help. I don't know how much I can learn in a week but hey, it's worth a shot."

"A week?" Both Kurama and Frost asked at the same time, making Aria feel like there was an echo bouncing around somewhere.

"Yeah," she said rubbing her ears as if that would make the echo-y feeling go away. "When he didn't kill me Arashi told me that I had a week before his master basically destroyed this world. Didn't I tell you that already?" She couldn't have actually forgotten.

"No," Kurama said, "this is the first time you've mentioned it."

Oh, oops.

_"If this is truly what they plan, and I see no reason for them to lie, then we should hurry. The more you can learn the greater chance you have of succeeding."_ Frost said.

"And," Aria swallowed, "and what happens if I fail?"

Those clear blue eyes bored into her again, making her feel even more uneasy. _"Then there won't be anyone left to save."_

********

They started as soon as Aria changed and told her mother that she and Kurama were going down to the beach. Mrs. Cullen protested a little, saying that she had passed out that morning, but Aria argued that she felt fine. In the end her mother gave up and told her not to fall off the rocks again.

Aria didn't get very far that day or the next day or the day after that. Frost was less then impressed with Aria's slow progress, but Kurama wasn't all that surprised. It had been eighteen years since Aria had used any of her powers. Heck, she had only remembered Adia last week. She hadn't yet remembered how to reach her energy, even though she theoretically knew what to do with it.

Kurama was surprised however, when Aria managed to hold her temper until Wednesday. She had never been patient with things she should know, but couldn't recall. He was honestly surprised she had managed to reign in her temper this long. He supposed that the need to save the world was keeping her temper in check.

But she still ended up exploding.

"I can't do this!" She yelled Wednesday morning at the sea the stretched forever in front of her. The Froslass floated farther back from the waves while Kurama watched from the rocks near the tree line.

Kurama could almost hear the Froslass tell Aria in a somewhat patronizing tone that she had to. Despite the fact that he couldn't actually hear the pokemon speak, Frost did have a peculiar personality. He didn't have to hear her to see that.

Although it did help that Aria's answers were loud and usually included at least a part of the unheard question.

"What do you mean try harder? I _am _trying as hard as I can. I already have a headache and all my muscle hurt. What else do you want me to do?"

Silence as the Froslass answered.

"Well sorry I don't remember what I'm doing. It's only been eighteen years since I've even remembered I had this power."

Aria paced while Frost spoke.

"I know!" She finally screamed. "I know people are going to die if I can't figure this out. I know that if I can't do this, their deaths will all be my fault!"

With that final shout, Aria turned on her heel and ran back toward the house, hot tears of anger starting to fill her eyes. The Froslass began to float after her, but Kurama held out a hand.

"I'll talk to her. She's too upset with you to listen to what you have to say."

He didn't hear if the blue creature said anything, but he thought the look she was giving him was icy in more then one way.

Kurama found Aria in the middle of the forest that surrounded the front of her home. She was sitting on a large stone next to a giggling stream that flowed down to the ocean. She was sobbing hysterically and didn't realize he had followed her until he put an arm around her shoulders.

"I-I can't d-d-do th-is." She sobbed.

"Yes you can." Kurama reassured her. "As soon as you find your power over water Xryna will fall."

"And if I can't find it?" She asked in a terrified, quiet, voice.

Kurama tilted Aria's face to make her look at him. "You will. You will, and Xryna will lose."

Aria nodded, but fresh tears spilled down her face anyway. Kurama sat down next to her and held her as she cried. It was a big task even if this mysterious 'King Arceus' whom Frost had mentioned said she was the only one who could defeat Xryna.

After sitting there for a short time Kurama smoothed down Aria's hair and kissed her temple. "Don't worry Aria. I'll help you, don't worry."

********

Please Review. I am very tired so goodnight.


	10. Chapter 10: Gardevoir

I'm FREE! I have finished all my finals and I am free! Yipee! In celebration I'm posting the next chapter and trying to work on my new Yu Yu Hakusho story. It's tentatively titled Never Stop Running and I'm going to try and finish writing it before I post so there won't be any periods of horrendous waiting. But until it is up you can enjoy The Blue Rose!

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Chapter Ten: Gardevoir

There was a green menace clinging to his arm.

Kurama stared at the creature, wondering if a slight sting from his rose whip would make it go away, but then decided that as much as he wanted to, the creature hadn't actually done anything except partially cut off his circulation. So far.

The Gardevoir meeped incoherently at him, then smiled up at him girlishly as it hung off his arm. Apparently the creature thought that Kurama (who had only carried the semi-conscious Gardevoir to the house at Mrs. Cullen's request) had single handedly saved it. Now the creature was determined to show its undying gratitude.

With hugs.

The greater problem, Kurama had found, was that it refused to let go. It was deceptively strong and often he couldn't get it to let go unless it fell asleep (he could then carefully pry it off his arm) or was distracted (which was less likely).

Currently the stubborn creature was clinging to his left arm. Kurama tried to reign in his temper as the silly creature meeped and cooed its name at him while the two of them watched Aria and Frost try to reawaken Aria's power. It wasn't going well and everyone there was loosing patience with one thing or another.

Aria broke first and she and Frost went through another of their arguments before Aria stomped off one way while Frost floated in another.

Kurama stood, intending to follow Aria, but the Gardevoir clung, pulling him down again. With an angry huff, Kurama tried to hold on to his patience. Instead it skipped away from his control and dashed away like a disobedient child.

"Let. Go." He told the Gardevoir in a frightening voice.

The creature stared at him with wide reddish eyes and its lips trembled slightly, like it hadn't thought Kurama capable of using such a voice. Stunned, the creature let go and with a sorrowful sound and floated off in the direction of the forest.

With a shake of his head Kurama went off towards the house.

Aria wasn't there or anywhere within hearing distance. He called her name only twice before giving up. Maybe it was just best to leave her alone till she cooled down.

Instead Kurama went and wound his way through the trees of the forest. Under the evergreen's needles the air was shady and cool. The sounds of forest life were everywhere are creature went on with their small lives, unaware of the potential doom hanging over there heads, just three days away.

The cool of the forest and the scurrying life helped Kurama to cool his temper. He walked a little ways through the trees and undergrowth until he found a clump of dry boulders that he could sit on. They sat within the edge of the tree line, close enough to the edge to see the earth turn into sand into ocean, but far enough in that the trees caught most of the ocean's spray that was blown inland by the wind.

He began to think. And while that actually wasn't all that strange for him, now some rather interesting problems filled his mind.

First, they only had three days left before Xryna demolished this world. No one was quite sure how he was going to accomplish this feat. He could rely on an army or horrendous natural disasters (that would require more time) or he could just snap his fingers (so to speak) and this world would be gone from one instant to the next.

Although regardless of how, there was also the problem of stopping him. Frost had said that Aria was the only one who could stop Xryna. However if she was going to accomplish anything she was going to have to remember her gift with water. She couldn't though. For some reason, she was stuck. Kurama supposed it could be because that had literally been another lifetime, when she had been Adia. Kurama had been through a similar situation when he had become Shuichi and it had taken him ten years to regain his full power. However, something was keeping Aria's power from her; that was why she hadn't stumbled upon it when she was younger. The question now then was it Xryna who was causing this block or if someone, possibly something, else was keeping her from her power. The first option was understandable, but Xryna didn't have that kind of subtlety even if he did have the forethought and power. The second option, while less likely, was very possible and also far more frightening.

As he thought, Kurama flipped a small silver button up and down in spinning circles. When his thoughts became too circular, going round and round like the button with no decent end, he stopped and looked at the silver circle. Koenma had sent it too him as a way to return home. All he had to do was squeeze the button and he would return. He didn't know if it would work on more then one person though.

A flash of green, brighter then the green of the trees caught Kurama's attention and startled him, which was an unusual action for him. When he realized that the brighter green was only a bird he didn't know, he slumped and heaved a sigh that might have been described as relief. Even when it wasn't around the threat Gardevoir still hung over Kurama closer then the threat of the upcoming doomsday.

Kurama rubbed at his temples and then stood. It was getting late in the afternoon, and the unanswered dilemmas were weighing heavily on his mind. He should go see how Aria was doing. He just wished he had found the answers to his numerous questions.

********

He found Aria in the place he least expected. She was standing knee deep in the ocean's moving waters her hands out in front of her, palms facing the ocean surface. The constant ebb and flow of the salty water made her sway slightly and her legs were itchy where the spray and splashed against them.

Kurama guessed what she was trying to do and called out softly so as not to startle her, "Try and match the rhythm of the waves."

She looked up once to see him standing there on the beach. Then she shut her eyes and tried to feel that same constant movement inside her as well as outside. She swayed more, unintentionally, for a brief moment feeling the sway of the water inside her as it ebbed and flowed, pushed and pulled under her skin. A huge smile started to form on her face. She had done it! She felt the sensation of heavy water rising with her fingertips as she drew it out of the ocean.

But then it was gone, pushed out of her and pulled back into the water surrounding her.

"Conflabit!" She yelled loudly as the water that had been rising out of the ocean in a long spindly rope plopped back into the water, soaking the hem of her shorts. She wasn't sure if that was a word or not, but it expressed the proper amount of frustration she felt at the moment.

With several other most-likely-not-words, Aria angrily splashed her way to the beach and grabbed her green towel which she had left on a rock near the edge of the forest. She had learned at least one thing that first unsuccessful day she started training with Frost; always bring a towel to dry yourself off with after you failed miserably.

Fortunately for Aria, Frost hadn't reappeared yet. Otherwise she might have thrown the cold creature into the ocean after she gave her yet another not very helpful piece of advice. Most likely the very blue creature was off meditating somewhere as Aria had often seen her do after she tried to train Aria.

"That was better Aria. You almost had the ribbon free of the water." Kurama said and as he laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. He said nothing about her earlier argument with Frost, which Aria was glad for.

"Almost isn't good enough." She told him tartly. "We've only got three more days and I can't even get a drop of water to listen to me much less enough to stop a force of sheer evil." She was almost yelling by the end, with her hands spread out to her sides for emphasis. These past few days she had hardly felt anything but frustrated.

Kurama got that thoughtful look on his face that meant he was trying very hard to work something out. Aria stopped and waited, hoping that he would remember something, anything, which might help her.

Instead he said, "I don't understand," Aria very nearly threw up her hands and gave up then and there. She knew that if Kurama couldn't understand something, then she (who was not nearly as good as fitting things together as he was) would never easily understand it.

However he kept speaking. "There's no reason why you shouldn't be able to reach your energy at all. You've had plenty of time for it to return on its own, but it's like your cut off from it, as if someone was deliberately keeping you from reaching it." He said, thinking out loud. He'd thought this many times before but now, after watching Aria's energy as she reached for the water, he had little doubt that it was true.

Aria, blinked. "Xryna's cut me off from my energy?" She asked tentatively. She hadn't even considered the possibility that anyone would keep her energy from her. She had just thought she was slow to learn water as she was with almost everything else. She had never liked school.

Kurama shook his head, still thinking. "No," He muttered. He was fairly positive of that too. "Xryna's energy has a certain feel too it, like when there's ash or dirt in the air. I haven't felt anything like that since I came here."

"Well what can we do?" Aria asked.

Kurama thought a moment more. "It might be possible," he stared slowly, "that whoever is doing this simply put a block in your mind that prevents you from reaching your power with water."

"Oh!" Aria said as a memory returned to her. "That first time I used the water when Arashi appeared, it felt like a door had burst open and the water just came rushing in. I don't feel that way now though."

Kurama nodded. "They may have replaced the mental barrier or repaired it after you broke through it."

Aria's face brightened. "Then we can just remove it completely and things will work out?" She asked hopefully.

Kurama doubted it was that simple at all, but it was worth a try. He gave a sharp nod. "Hopefully."

Aria grinned and grabbed Kurama's hand, pulling him after her towards her house. "Well come on, let's give it a try." She cried excitedly. Strangely enough, Kurama found he didn't mind Aria dragging him nearly as much as the green menace.

********

Several minutes later, both Aria and Kurama were seated on the floor of Aria's bedroom. Her mother had left earlier to check on a friend's pokemon and they had locked the door incase the Gardevoir returned while they were still trying to break the mysterious barrier. Frost was nowhere to be found.

"Ready?" Kurama asked.

Aria shifted on the carpet, put her hands on her knees and took a deep breath for courage. "Ready." She said as firmly as she could. It wasn't that she didn't trust Kurama; it was just that the idea of anyone rooting around in her mind made her a mite uneasy.

Kurama nodded and closed his eyes in concentration, Aria mimicking him. For a moment, she didn't notice any big difference, and almost starting humming to herself to fill the silence.

Then a strange sensation appeared. It felt like something was pricking at the inside of her forehead. It tickled the inside of her skull like a mouse or some other furry creature was crawling in her brain. It was downright queer.

Then it began to hurt as much as if a rodent was in her head. Something was crawling around through her thoughts, shifting through memories, nibbling at half created ideas. She took a deep breath. This could be the answer to why she couldn't use her water. She couldn't just give up because it was beginning to hurt.

But then the creature bit something that sent a rocket of pain through her like a fire flashing through her nerves.

She let out a sharp, high pitched cry and threw her hands in front of her face as if that would stop the flash of light from flaring behind her eyelids. She fell back waiting for the pain to spread through the rest of her body.

But as soon as she was able to register anything beyond the brilliant light, she heard Kurama's worried voice.

"Aria? Aria!" He called. She opened her eyes but all she saw was glaring sun spots. If she tried hard she could make out the edge of the ceiling fan in between the light.

She waved her hand, trying to shoo away the hand that kept shaking her. "Stop." She whined. Her head was aching fiercely now and she kept her eyes shut tight trying to will away the light by force.

"Aria what happened? What's wrong?" Kurama asked, pulling her into a sitting position.

"There was a mouse and then boom, the rocket went off and my head hurts." She babbled.

Kurama briefly wondered if you dialed 911 in this world for emergency services like they did at home.

Then he shook his head. "Aria, what happened?" He asked again.

Aria groaned and held her head, now wishing she couldn't see. Her head felt like the mouse had turned into an elephant and was rampaging around in her head. After a minute the elephant turned into a cat and simply sat there kneading her gray matter.

"I don't know." She finally answered. "There was a mouse chewing on my memories-"

Kurama gave her a little shake. "Aria, you're not making sense. What mouse?"

Aria wondered how this did not make sense. "There was a mouse in my head. It crawled over my thoughts and when it bit something exploded and now my head hurts."

Kurama finally guessed enough of what Aria was saying to understand the general point. "Aria that wasn't a mouse." He couldn't believe he had to tell her that. "That was me. I was looking for the mental barrier."

She looked up at him still slightly dazed. "Did you find it?" She asked.

Kurama laughed sharply. "Yes. That was the rocket."

"Oh." Aria said. "I take it the explosion wasn't the barrier being blown to oblivion?" She asked feeling a little more like herself.

Kurama smiled and shook his head. "No, that was something throwing me out of your mind."

"Something?"

"Most likely whoever put it there." He told her.

They were quiet for a moment, Kurama thoughtful and Aria still feeling a little dazed and happy enough that she could just sit there with her head on Kurama's shoulder.

Then a thought occurred to her. "Wait, does that mean that there really is a barrier keeping me apart from the water energy?"

Kurama spoke thoughtfully. "Yes, and from what I was able to tell it's a very strong one as well. That makes it difficult to break through and if what just happened is any indication, it may hurt." He looked at her worriedly.

But Aria just nodded her head. "I guess we should just get this over with then." She said stubbornly.

"Aria you don't have to do this." Kurama tried.

Aria nodded. "Yes I do. There's only three days left before Xryna shows up bringing doomsday and who knows what else in his wake. I refuse to just sit here and let him trample us with whatever force of evil he brings with him." She took a deep, steadying breath, and sat cross legged in front of Kurama once more. "So let's break this weirdo's barrier, get my powers back, and go save the world." She smiled bravely, but Kurama saw the corner of her mouth waver just a bit.

He leaned forward and kissed her forehead. "It will be alright." He reassured her.

Aria nodded and for a second it looked as if her brave front would crumple. Tears appeared in the corners of her eyes and her lips trembled dangerously. He thought for a moment she would cry, but she closed her eyes and took steadying breath. Her brown eyes were still wet when she opened them again, but no new tears formed.

She nodded stubbornly. "I know," and now she smiled weakly, "but that doesn't mean I don't want to get this over this as fast as we can."

Kurama nodded and positioned himself in front of her again. He bent his head and closed his eyes and reached out again with his energy, but not before he reached out and took her hand in his.

The mouse feeling appeared again and Aria braced herself. This time it didn't scurry through her mind searching, but went straight the barrier. It prodded at it gently and Aria relaxed just a little. That hadn't hurt at all.

Then there was a sharp pang as something lashed out. She thought at first that Kurama had struck the wall in an attempt to break it, but that wasn't quite right. Next she thought that the wall had a self defense system all its own to prevent someone from trying to break it like they were. But then the pain came again, even sharper then before. Aria held tight to Kurama's hand and held her breath. She looked inward, not questioning how she did it or how it worked afraid that questioning it would make it stop working.

She watched closely as Kurama reached out again and tentatively touched the barrier again in an attempt to find a way to break it. Pain, stronger then before shot through her brain and she almost missed the new energy that appeared out of the barrier. It was great and golden and it hurt like a flaming nail through her ear. She thought she might have seen or felt or sensed it before, but she wasn't quite sure.

She was sure that the golden light was absolutely blinding. If she had been looking through her physical eyes, she would have had to squint if she wanted to see anything at all.

Kurama's energy recoiled from the burst of light. Maybe it hurt him as much as it hurt her Aria thought distantly. Whether it hurt him or not Kurama redoubled his efforts. He attacked the golden light trying to defeat its power. But the light only grew more powerful and brighter the harder he fought. When a straightforward attack didn't work, Kurama tried to slip past the light's defenses, dodging this way and that between glowing tendrils and golden shine to get at the wall behind it.

But the light was everywhere now. It filled her mind with a fierce, blinding, light, and painful in its brilliance and beauty. She thought she might have whimpered pitifully (she certainly felt like she could) but she wasn't sure. It seemed like the longer she watched the battle inside her mind, the less she saw or heard of the outside world.

"Get out. Get Out! GET OUT!" Aria finally screamed. She had had enough of this.

The light increased and though Aria didn't know it, she opened her mouth and screamed a high pitched, frightened sound that startled every creature that heard it.

At first Kurama thought she was yelling at him. He retreated immediately, but just as quickly stopped. While the gold light was still there hovering protectively in front of the barrier, cracks were beginning to form in the wall. For a moment Kurama didn't understand. He had stopped attacking the light and the barrier when he had drawn back. Also the foreign energy was motionless, apparently taking no notice of the crumbling wall behind it.

Then Kurama saw a new energy peering through the now large cracks in the barrier. It was a familiar energy with a bluish tint to it. Familiar because it was Aria's, and blue for its connection to water.

Aria's energy surged again, sending more cracks shooting through the wall. Chunks began to fall, disintegrating as soon as they were severed from the whole. Piece by piece the wall crumbled down around the head of the golden energy.

Slightly panicked, the mysterious wall raiser tried to rebuild the wall in Aria's mind before her energy could escape, but it was useless. The barrier couldn't stand up to Aria's imprisoned energy and dissolved in a sea of rushing blue. Briefly Kurama thought he saw other energies beyond the blue of Aria's, but he couldn't be sure before Aria unceremoniously and unknowingly kicked him out of her mind.

The force was so strong that in the outside world Kurama fell backwards onto the carpet before he realized he was once more in the physical world.

He sat up and saw that Aria was sprawled out on the floor as well, her arms drawn up around her pale face and sweat beading upon her forehead. She was panting for breath as she squeezed her eyes shut.

"Aria?" Kurama asked as he laid a hand on her shoulder. "Aria are you alright?"

Aria nodded but otherwise didn't move.

Kurama gave her a light shake. "Aria you look like a fried light bulb. What happened?"

It was true Aria saw when she opened her eyes. The tips of her hair looked singed and they smelled even worse. Her tresses were everywhere and full of static electricity that made it stand up straight and stick to her face and neck. And every time she tried to brush it away it shocked her hands painfully.

"Aria?" Kurama asked again.

Aria cleared her suddenly dry throat. "I'm fine." She croaked. "Help me up so I can get something to drink." She said holding out her hands pleadingly.

He pulled her up and then followed her out the door and into the kitchen where he waited patiently as she got a cup of water and drank it thirstily.

"Well?" Kurama finally asked when Aria filled her cup again. "Do you know what happened? Is the barrier fully gone?"

Aria looked thoughtfully into her cup. "I think so. That door I felt when Arashi attacked feels like its wide open now."

"Can you reach your energy now?" Kurama asked. If she couldn't then he was out of ideas.

Aria stared even harder into her cup. Her eyebrows drew together in concentration and she didn't look up even when Kurama asked his question again.

Then a small ribbon of blue rose up out of the cup. The water flowed upward, defying gravity, Aria's eyes never leaving its twisty progress.

Then suddenly it collapsed back into the cup and Aria looked up with a huge smile blossoming on her face.

"I'll take that as a yes." Kurama said.

She nodded, her smile taking over her face. When she spoke her voice was soft, but that did not hide any of her excitement. "We still have a chance."

* * *

There's still hope out there, but will it be enough? Find out next time in Chapter Eleven: Kurama.

P.S. - Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty I am free at last!


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